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LIBRARY 


GIVEN     BY 


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How  Europe  Was  Won 
For  Christianity 


Rembrandt 


ST.    PAUL   IN    PRISON 


How  Europe  Was  Won 
For  Christianity 

* 
Being  the  Life-Stories  of  the 
Men  Concerned  in  Its  Conquest 


By 
M.   WILMA   STUBBS 


"  Great  men  need  not  that  we  praise  them  ; 
the  need  is  ours  that  we  know  them." 

—Arthur  C.  McGiffert 


New  York         Chicago         Toronto 

Fleming   H.  Revell   Company 

London  and  Edinburgh 


Copyright,  1913,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  125  N.  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto:  25  Richmond  St.,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:    100   Princes   Street 


To 
MY  MOTHER 

whose  Christian  faith 

has  been  my  constant  inspiration, 

this  book  is  affectionately 

inscribed 


FOREWORD 

THE  title  of  the  present  volume  may  at  first 
thought  seem  applicable  only  to  Part  One. 
Not  so.  Europe  was  not  truly  won  for  Chris- 
tianity until  she  was  awakened  to  "  the  marching  or- 
ders "  of  her  Commander.  In  other  words,  Europe 
evangelized  must  mean  Europe  evangelizing. 

In  relating  the  life-stories  of  the  heroic  men  who 
had  a  part  in  this  great  work,  we  have  necessarily 
touched  upon  many  and  widely  differing  beliefs  and 
methods.  With  reference  to  most  of  these  we  have 
striven  to  remain  neutral,  discovering  the  lesson  which 
may  be  of  common  profit  to  all.  If  we  believe  in  the 
progress  of  mankind,  we  must  acknowledge  that  to- 
day's vision  is  far  broader  than  yesterday's.  From 
this  fact,  however,  arises  the  danger  of  ignoring  the 
past  or  of  interpreting  it  by  to-day's  standards.  Let 
us  the  rather  estimate  the  faith  and  work  of  those 
medicEval  missionaries  in  the  same  spirit  that  we 
should  desire  the  historian  of  a  thousand  years  hence 
to  judge  the  missionary  heroes  of  the  nineteenth  and 
twentieth  centuries. 

Everywhere  we  have  used  the  word  saint  in  its 
broadest  sense,  a  term  to  denote  the  consecrated, 
heroic  Christian  labourer.  And  we  do  well  to  honour 
the  great  and  good  men  and  women  of  the  past  as 
members  with  us  of  the  great  Church  Universal.  Let 
us  rejoice  in  their  victories  and  conquests.  Needless 
to  say,  God's  saints  are  not  of  one  age  or  of  one  sphere 

7 


8  FOREWOIID 

of  labour.  We  have  them  with  us  in  the  home  and  in 
the  business  mart,  and  because  we  know  the  majesty 
of  their  lives  we  are  able  to  understand  the  heroism 
of  other  and  different  ages. 

Let  no  one  say  that  in  recognizing  the  needs  of 
distant  lands  we  are  underrating  the  splendid  and 
truly  missionary  work  glorifying  the  crowded,  sor- 
rowing, sinning  streets  of  our  great  cities — the  social 
work,  which  stirs  the  blood  of  all  who  read.  Yet 
every  sincere  follower  of  the  Master  must  recognize 
that  He  has  other  sheep  and  that  all  must  be  brought 
to  know  the  great  compassionate  heart  of  the  Father. 

My  hearty  thanks  are  due  to  the  Bangor  Theological 
Seminary  for  access  to  the  rich  store  of  missionary 
literature  which  the  Seminary  Library  contains;  to  the 
Leipzig  Evangelical  Lutheran  Mission  for  permission 
to  use  the  portrait  of  Christian  Friedrich  Schwartz 
and  the  view  of  Ziegenbalg's  church,  Tranquebar; 
and  to  Professor  Harlan  P.  Beach,  of  Yale  University, 
for  the  kind  loan  of  his  photograph  of  the  Schwartz 
monument,  Tanjore. 

M.  W.  S. 


CONTENTS 

PART  I 

THE  AGE  OF  HEROES 

I,     The  Linking  OF  THE  Old  AND  THE  New    .       17 

II.     The  Prince  of  Missionaries     ...      24 
Paul  the  Apostle 

III,  A  Missionary-Bishop 37 

Widfila  the  Goth 

IV.  Bondsman  and  Emancipator    ...       46 

The  Story  of  Patricius 

V.     The  Apostles  of  Galloway  and  Strath- 

CLYDE 5^ 

Ninian  and  Ketitigern 

VI.     The  Dove  of  the  Churches     .         .         .65 
Cohmiba  and  the  Missionary  Institute  of 
lona 

VII.     A  Voice  from  the  Desert        ...       78 
Severinus,  Hermit-Missionary 

VIII.     Celtic  Missionaries   on   the   Continent       83 
Columbanus  and  Gallus 

IX.     The  Founder  of  Canterbury  .         .       92 

Augustine  and  the  Conversion  of  Kent 

X.     A   Roman  Bishop   and  a  Northumbrian 

King 107 

Paulinus  and  Eadwine 
9 


10  CONTENTS 

XI.     The  Glory  of  the  North  Country        .     121 
Aidan  and  Cuthbert 

XII.     Whom  the  Briton  Honours    .         .         .     131 
£ng  la  fid's  Lesser  Apostles 

XIII.     Labourers  in  Friesland    ....     141 
Amajidus,    Eligius,     Wilfrid^     Willibrord, 
Liudger^  and  Willehad 

XIV.     The  Monk  of  Nutscelle         .         .         .     151 
Winfrid,  Better  Known  as  Boniface 

XV.     The  Apostle  of  the  North   .         .         .     163 
Ansgar^  Bishop  of  Hamburg 

XVI.     Messengers  Among  the  Slavs         .         .     173 
Cyril  {Constantine)  arid  Methodius 

XVII.     Martyrs  for  Their  Faith      .         .         .     179 
Trudpert,  Kilian,  the  Jfewalds,  Wenceslaus, 
Adalbert,  and  Gottschalk 

PART  II 
DARKNESS  AND  DAYBREAK 

I.     Backgrounds 189 

II.     "The  Little  Brother"  .         .         .     205 

St.  Francis  of  Assisi 

III.  A  Knight  of  Old  Spain  .        .        .     219 

Raymund  Lull 

IV.  The  Protector  of  the  Oppressed  .     230 

Bartholomi  de  las  Casas 

V.     For  the  Greater  Glory  of  God  .  245 

Jesuit  Labourers 


CONTENTS  11 

VI.     Heroes  of  the  Ice-Bound  North  .        .     258 
The  Egedes  in  Greenland 

VII.     The  Pilgrims'  Watch       .         .         .         .272 
Moravian  Missions 

VIII.     Heralds  of  a  New  Day  in  India  .     285 

Ziegenbalgf  Fliitschau,  Schultze,  Schwartz 

Appendices 3°' 

I.  Notes  on  Text.  II.  Notes  on  Illustra- 
tions. III.  Selections  from  the  Con- 
fession of  St.  Patrick.  IV.  Part  of  a 
Letter  sent  by  the  Tranquebar  Mis- 
sionaries to  George  I  of  England.  V. 
Chronology. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


I.     St.  Paul  in  Prison — Rembrandt     .     Frontispiece 


2.    Ancient  Celtic  Cross,  Iona 

3A.  St.  Martin's  Church,  Canterbury 

3B.  Canterbury  Cathedral 

4.  Ruins  on  Holy  Isle  . 

5.  Melrose  Abbey 

6.  The  "  Hill-Fortress  "  of  Durham 

7.  The  Book  of  Martyrdom  . 

8.  Statue  of  St.  Eligius — Di  Banco 

9.  St.    Ansgarius    Releasing    Heathen    Boy 

FROM  Yoke  of  Paganism — Steinhauser 

10.  St.  Francis  of  Assisi 

11.  Allegory  of  Poverty — Giotto 

12.  The  Voyage  of  the  Vikings — Hendrich 

13.  Bergen  Harbour        .... 

14.  Jerusalem  Church,  Tranquebar 

15.  Christian  Friedrich  Schwartz 

16.  Schwartz    Monument    and    Inscription 

Tanjore  .... 


FACING    PAGE 

75 


lOI 
lOI 

121 
128 
130 
138 
143 

171 

205 
210 
258 
264 
286 
293 

297 


PART   I 
THE   AGE   OF   HEROES 


"  It  will  be  found,  if  I  mistake  not,  that  the  resemblances  of 
early  and  recent  missions  are  far  greater  than  their  contrasts; 
that  both  alike  have  had  to  surmount  the  same  difficulties  and 
have  been  chequered  by  the  same  vicissitudes ;  that  both  alike 
exhibit  the  same  inequalities  of  progress,  the  same  alternations 
of  success  and  failure,  periods  of  acceleration  followed  by  peri- 
ods of  retardation,  when  the  surging  wave  has  been  sucked  back 
in  the  retiring  current,  while  yet  the  flood  has  been  rising 
steadily  all  along,  though  the  unobservant  eye  might  fail  to  mark 
it,  advancing  toward  the  final  consummation  when  the  earth  shall 
be  covered  with  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  as  the  waters  cover 
the  sea.     History  is    an    excellent    cordial    for    the    drooping 


courage. 


— Lightfoot,  "  Co77iparative  Progress  of 
Ancient  and  Modern  Missions." 

"  I  see 
How  every  time  with  every  time  is  knit. 
And  each  to  all  is  mortised  cunningly, 
And  none  is  sole  or  whole,  yet  all  is  fit." 

—  Sidney  Lanier,  "  Ac^'now/edgmeni." 


THE  LINKING  OF  THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW 

"  For  us  thy  martyrs  die,  thy  prophets  see."  * 

THERE  is  no  greater  romance  than  the  story  of 
Christian  missions.  From  Paul's  time  to  our 
own  day  the  life  histories  of  the  men  and 
women  who  have  gone  out  beyond  their  own  borders 
to  win  new  conquests  for  the  Master  have  been  stories 
of  high  adventure,  of  noble  ambition,  of  mighty 
achievement  and  holy  living  hard  to  match  in  any  other 
department  of  the  world's  history.  Some  of  the 
grandest  heroism  of  modern  time  has  been  shown  on 
the  mission  fields  of  East  and  West.  Said  President 
McKinley  not  long  before  his  death,  "  The  missionary 
of  whatever  church  or  ecclesiastical  body,  who  devotes 
his  life  to  the  service  of  the  Master  and  of  men,  carry- 
ing the  torch  of  truth  and  enlightenment,  deserves  the 
gratitude,  the  support,  and  the  homage  of  mankind. 
The  noble,  self-effacing,  willing  ministers  of  peace  and 
good-will  should  be  classed  with  the  world's  heroes."  ^ 
Of  like  heroism  with  the  missionary  heroes  of  yes- 
terday and  to-day  were  the  conquerors  for  the  faith^  in 
mediaeval  Europe.  Among  the  forests  of  Germany,  in 
the  tangled  morasses  of  the  Low  Countries,  on  the 

1  Lowell,  "  To  the  Past." 

2  Speer,  "Christianity  and  the  Nations." 

3  Faith  in  its  large  sense.     Creeds  change,  faith  is  the  same  in 
every  age. 

17 


18    LINKING  OF  THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW 

white  cliffs  of  Britain,  and  the  lonely  islands  and 
heather-clad  hills  of  Scotland,  or  amid  the  fiords  of 
Norway,  these  messengers  of  good  tidings  pushed  their 
way  fearlessly,  counting  no  suffering  too  great  for 
souls  redeemed  and  lives  made  happy.  With  a  cour- 
age and  a  consecration  which  no  later  day  has  sur- 
passed they  faced  perils  all  the  greater  because  the 
mystery  of  the  unknown  rested  upon  them.  For  the 
salvation  of  immortal  souls  these  men  braved  the  ter- 
rors of  the  wilderness,  of  the  wild  beast,  of  heathen 
fury;  they  toiled  patiently  with  their  hands  that  labour 
might  be  made  honourable  and  farm  and  homestead 
succeed  war  and  pillage;  they  spent  their  lives  in 
journeyings,  often  on  foot,  that  there  might  be  no 
soul,  however  ignorant  or  humble,  who  had  not  heard 
the  Gospel  message;  they  made  the  mission  station  a 
light  for  the  mind  as  well  as  for  the  soul,  and  many 
of  the  great  schools  of  mediaeval  Europe  owed  their 
origin  to  the  missionary-monk;  finally,  they  met  death 
itself  courageously,  even  gladly,  if  so  be  that  the 
Master's  name  was  glorified. 

Yet  against  what  odds  did  they  work!  An  empire 
fallen,  new  nations  in  the  making,  nowhere  peace  or 
rest.  In  Latin  and  Greek  lands  old  civilizations  to 
be  remoulded  on  new  lines  and  permeated  with  a  new 
spirit,  a  task  great  enough  without  the  added  respon- 
sibiHty  of  the  conversion  of  the  barbarian.  And  in 
truth  that  task  was  largely  assumed  by  men  from 
nations  not  yet  a  century  out  of  heathenism.  Ireland 
and  Scotland,  more  than  half  of  England,  Germany, 
and  the  Netherlands  were  won  not  by  Roman  but 
by  Celtic  and  English  missionaries.  No  large  home 
church  supported  them  by  prayers  and  gifts.  They 
knew  little  of  the  countries  to  which  they  went ;  they 


LINKING  OF  THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW    19 

were  surrounded  by  almost^Gonstant  warfare,  by  im- 
morality, by  ignorance;  they  were  themselves  hin- 
dered by  superstition  and  narrow  outlook.  The 
world  they  knew  was  small,  the  means  at  their  com- 
mand were  meagre,  behind  them  was  no  long  line  of 
missionary  heroes.  They  were  blazing  a  path  through 
the  primeval  forest  of  missionary  activity,  and  be  it 
said  to  their  honour  they  were  of  true  pioneer  courage 
and  strength.  The  secret  of  that  strength  lay  in  their 
great  and  mighty  faith  in  the  reality  of  the  things  not 
seen.  They  knew  in  whom  they  trusted,  and  with  a 
great  missionary  educator  ^  of  our  own  land  might 
have  said,  "  What  are  Christians  in  the  world  for  but 
to  achieve  the  impossible  by  the  help  of  God?  "  The 
glory  of  these  early  missionary  labourers  is  that  so 
many  of  them  never  dreamed  that  right  could  be  im- 
possible, so  unquestioning  was  their  faith  in  the  power 
of  the  God  in  whom  they  believed. 

And  what  did  their  faith  accomplish?  In  England, 
where  their  efforts  reached  their  most  normal  fulfil- 
ment, within  a  century  of  the  first  preaching  of  the 
Christ  idolatry  had  been  driven  from  the  island, 
schools  were  springing  up  in  all  the  Anglo-Saxon  king- 
doms, codes  of  law  were  being  written  out,  and  in  the 
unity  of  the  church  a  force  had  been  introduced  which 
within  the  next  one  hundred  and  fifty  years  would 
make  of  those  separate  kingdoms  one  English  people. 
"  Nowhere  in  all  Europe,"  writes  an  English  his- 
torian, "  did  the  missionaries  appeal  so  exclusively  as 
they  did  in  England  to  higher  and  purer  motives. 
Nowhere  but  in  England  were  to  be  found  kings  like 
Oswald  and  Oswini,  who  bowed  their  souls  to  the  les- 
son of  the  Cross  and  learned  that  they  were  not  their 

1  General  Armstrong. 


20     LINKING  OF  THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW 

own,  but  were  placed  in  power  that  they  might  use 
their  strength  in  helping  the  poor  and  needy."  ^  Sec- 
onded by  their  rulers  these  missionaries  transformed 
the  land.  Agriculture  took  the  place  of  warfare,  edu- 
cational institutions  nourished  some  of  the  leading 
scholars  of  the  age,  the  study  of  the  art  of  building 
filled  the  land  with  noble  churches,  and  an  extensive 
literature  in  the  Latin  and  Anglo-Saxon  languages 
came  into  being.  In  a  word  Christian  civilization  was 
allowed  to  prove  its  latent  possibilities. 

But  the  truest  test  of  their  conversion  was  after  all 
the  missionary  zeal  which  prevailed  among  the  new 
converts.  That  they  were  so  eager  to  carry  the  good 
news  to  their  still  heathen  neighbours  proves  how  pre- 
cious their  faith  had  become  to  them.  Columba  and 
Aiden,  Willibrord  and  Boniface,  and  the. many  Irish 
and  Saxon  missionaries  of  the  seventh  and  eighth  cen- 
turies went  out  from  countries  which  were  hardly  yet 
beyond  the  missionary  stage.  Through  the  efforts  of 
men  like  these  Germany  and  the  Low  Countries  re- 
ceived the  faith  of  Christ  and  by  the  close  of  the 
eighth  century  had  abandoned  the  old  faiths  except 
in  the  Slavic  borderlands.  Three  centuries  more  were 
necessary  for  the  conversion  of  the  Danes  and  the 
Scandinavians,  but  how  solid  was  the  foundation 
which  was  finally  laid  for  the  superstructure  of  north- 
ern Christianity.  All  honour  to  those  missionary 
saints  who  by  their  heroic  lives  won  Europe  to  the 
Christ.  With  their  triumphant  struggles  against  al- 
most overwhelming  odds  for  precedent,  let  us  ques- 
tion ourselves  with  reference  to  our  duty,  yea,  our 
opportunity  and  privilege. 

The  cry  of  our  day  is  for  a  wider  vision.  No 
1  Gardiner,  "  History  of  England." 


LINKING  OF  THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW     21 

longer  are  we  content  with  mere  segments  of  the 
circle.  Discussions  of  world  problems,  of  world  poli- 
tics fill  our  magazines  and  papers;  our  universities  are 
studying  comparative  literature,  comparative  religion, 
and  the  correlation  of  the  intellectual  and  spiritual 
forces  of  the  universe.  As  a  result,  the  modern  man 
or  woman  of  education  and  culture  is  becoming  in- 
creasingly cosmopolitan  in  his  sympathies.  Nor  is 
this  true  of  the  West  alone;  the  dormant  nations  of 
the  East  are  rousing  themselves  from  their  agelong 
slumber  and  threaten  finally  to  outstrip  us  in  the  race. 
Within  the  last  fifty  years  Europe  and  America  have 
entered  a  new  world  of  possibility.  Some  one  has 
said  that  the  nineteenth  century  made  the  world  one 
neighbourhood,  and  that  the  twentieth  shall  make  it 
one  brotherhood.  What  more  splendid  achievement 
could  be  possible  for  the  Christian  countries  of  the 
world  than  to  meet  the  awakening  intellectual  con- 
sciousness of  the  Eastern  empires  with  the  out- 
stretched hand  of  Christian  brotherhood  and  to  win 
them  to  a  definite  and  national  acceptance  of  the  re- 
ligion of  the  Christ !  Here,  then,  is  our  opportunity, 
vaster  than  any  of  which  the  Past  ever  dreamed. 

To  the  Christians  of  America  there  has  come  in 
these  latter  days  perhaps  the  greatest  opportunity 
ever  presented  to  the  Church  of  Christ  in  all  the  long 
centuries  since  the  followers  of  the  risen  Saviour  be- 
gan telling  to  friend  and  neighbour  a  blessed  new  hope 
of  life  abundant  and  unending.  All  that  our  Christ 
means  to  us,  all  that  He  reveals  of  the  possessions 
which  neither  time  nor  place  nor  eternity  itself  can 
ever  take  from  us,  all  that  glorious  heritage  of  a 
Christianity  that  is  Christian  in  deed  as  well  as  in 
name,  we  have  the  privilege  of  giving  to  men  and 


22     LINKING  OF  THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW 

women  from  well-nigh  every  country  under  the  broad 
heavens,  men  and  women  who  are  with  us  and  will 
continue  to  be  with  us  for  weal  or  woe,  and  who  in 
turn  will  exert  an  incalculable  influence  upon  the  lands 
from  which  they  have  come  out. 

But  if  the  field  is  so  much  broader  than  in  those 
early  years,  how  much  more  adequate  are  the  means 
to  meet  the  need.  Money  and  business  acumen  are 
not  lacking  in  the  membership  of  our  churches,  nei- 
ther do  we  believe  is  consecration.  Again,  precedent 
and  experience  are  ours.  Organization  has  made  vast 
undertakings  feasible.  The  centuries  have  brought 
wisdom  and  power.  A  work  equal  to  the  efforts  of 
many  labourers  in  those  far-off  centuries  is  being  ac- 
complished to-day  by  the  Christian  press.  Medical 
and  industrial  schools  bring  to  thousands  in  non- 
Christian  lands  the  practical,  healing  touch  of  a  re- 
ligion that  cares  for  suffering,  that  will  have  mercy 
and  not  sacrifice. 

Greater  than  all  these  forces  is  that  vast  army  of 
Christian  souls  to  whom  the  faith  committed  to  them 
by  the  Fathers,  and  theirs  now  by  precious  experience, 
is  become  a  sacred  trust  not  to  be  kept  for  their  own 
well-being,  but  to  be  carried  to  every  man,  woman, 
and  child  for  whom  Christ  died.  Through  faith 
those  early  missionaries  with  few  material  resources 
at  their  command  subdued  kingdoms  that  had  long 
been  strongholds  of  paganism.  Shall  we  of  to-day  do 
less?  In  mighty  empires  the  gates  of  opportunity  are 
opening  to  the  entrance  of  Truth.  The  priests  of 
age-old  religions  look  out  upon  crumbling  walls  and 
murmur  "  Jesus."  Yes,  it  is  He  whose  own  the  king- 
doms of  the  world  shall  be.  Can  He  count  on  us  as 
His  ambassadors? 


LINKING  OF  THE  OLD  AND  THE  NEW     23 

The  long,  dark  night  has  broken  at  last.  Already 
upon  a  thousand  hills  the  silvery  streaks  of  the  dawn 
are  deepening  into  the  full  flushes  of  the  morning. 
There  is  need  only  of  the  earnest  and  united  efforts 
of  the  Master's  servants  to  bring  the  promise  of  the 
morning  to  the  glory  of  the  noontide,  when  no  one 
shall  teach  his  neighbour  or  say  to  his  brother,  Know 
the  Lord,  for  all  shall  know  Him  from  the  least  even 
to  the  greatest.  And  to  this  end,  beginning  at  Jeru- 
salem,— with  the  place  and  the  need  that  lie  nearest 
us, — "  Ye  shall  be  my  witnesses  unto  the  uttermost 
parts  of  the  earth." 

"  The  world  sits  at  the  feet  of  Christ, 
Unknowing,  blind,  and  unconsoled  ; 
It  yet  shall  touch  his  garment's  fold, 
And  feel  the  heavenly  Alchemist 
Transform  its  very  dust  to  gold." 


II 

THE  PRINCE  OF  MISSIONARIES 
Paul  the  Apostle 

•'  Oft  when  the  Word  is  on  me  to  deliver 

Opens  the  heaven,  and  the  Lord  is  there  ; 
Desert  or  throng,  the  city  or  the  river, 
Melt  in  a  Paradise  of  air, — 

"  Only  like  souls  I  see  the  folk  thereunder, 

Bound  who  should  conquer,  slaves  who  should  be  kings, — 
Hearing  their  one  hope  with  an  empty  wonder, 
Sadly  contented  in  a  show  of  things  ; — 

"  Then,  with  a  rush,  the  intolerable  craving 

Shivers  throughout  me  like  a  trumpet  call, — 
Oh,  to  save  them  ! — to  perish  in  their  saving. 
Die  for  their  life,  be  offered  for  them  all  !  " 

—F.  W.  H.  Myers,  "  5/.  Pau/." 

THE  busy  harbor  of  Neapolis  was  thronged  to 
the  full  with  sailing  craft  of  every  sort  on  that 
far-away  afternoon  in  the  year  of  our  Lord 
50.  Grain  vessels  unloading  heavy  cargoes,  merchant 
galleys  taking  on  ladings  of  oil  and  wine,  and  the  small 
fishing  boats  of  the  harbour  filled  the  air  with  the  min- 
gled shouts  of  the  sailors  and  the  groaning  of  the 
ponderous  bales  as  they  were  lowered  from  the  ware- 
houses. Out  beyond  the  forest  of  masts  the  quiet 
waters  of  the  bay  had  caught  the  deep  blue  of  the 
Grecian  heaven,   which   far  off  on  the  horizon  line 

24 


PAUL  THE  APOSTLE  25 

melted  into  a  purple  haze  on  the  hills  of  Thasos. 
Around  the  low  shores  at  the  harbour's  eastern  en- 
trance a  small  vessel  was  slowly  making  its  way,  the 
high  curved  prow  and  stern  and  square  sail  forming 
a  quaint  picture  in  the  afternoon  sunlight  as  the  galley 
bore  on  toward  shore,  its  banks  of  oars  rising  and  fall- 
ing with  a  strong  and  rhythmic  sweep.  One  ship 
more  or  less  at  the  already  crowded  docks — what 
could  it  matter?  The  Neapolitan  merchant  in  his 
flowing  himation  would  come  and  carefully  inspect 
his  newly  arrived  merchandise,  and  the  galley,  having 
taken  on  board  her  store  of  olive  oil,  would  sail  out 
again  over  the  blue  waters  of  the  bay  as  so  many  other 
vessels  had  done  that  very  year. 

In  the  company  of  those  who  watched  the  good 
ship's  entrance  on  that  summer  afternoon  was  there 
no  prophet  to  foresee  that  hundreds  of  years  there- 
after, when  of  "  the  glory  that  was  Greece  and  the 
grandeur  that  was  Rome  "  only  magnificent  ruins  re- 
mained, the  small,  rather  insignificant-looking  man 
in  Jewish  dress,  who  with  two  or  three  companions 
had  taken  passage  at  Troas  and  whose  landing  here 
was  scarcely  noticed  by  the  motley  crowd  on  the 
wharves,  would  be  remembered  and  honoured  from 
the  snowclad  mountains  of  the  north  to  the  sunny 
vineyards  of  the  south,  from  the  western  isles  to  the 
barren  steppes  beyond  the  Danube,  while  the  message 
he  brought  to  Europe  that  day  would  hold  dominion 
in  millions  of  hearts  when  the  gods  of  Rome  and  of 
Hellas  were  beautiful  myths  of  the  past?  Strange  and 
incomprehensible  would  such  a  prophecy  have  seemed 
to  the  pagan  Neapolitan.  Yet  that  is  precisely  what 
the  landing  of  Paul  with  his  friends  Silas  and  Tim- 
othy and  the  unknown  author  of  the  "  we  "  passages 


£6         THE  PRINCE  OF  MISSIONARIES 

of  the  Acts  meant  to  Europe,  as  "  having  loosed  from 
Troas  we  came  with  a  straight  course  to  Samothracia 
and  the  next  day  to  Neapolis  "  on  the  great  apostle's 
second  missionary  journey  and  first  entrance  into 
Europe. 

In  the  first  century,  as  at  the  present  day,  the  great 
highway  which  led  to  Thessalonica  on  the  Themiaic 
Bay,  after  leaving  Neapolis,  climbed  the  low  hills  on 
the  western  shore  of  the  bay  and  thence,  crossing  the 
plateau  of  Philippi,  made  its  first  halt  nine  or  ten 
miles  inland  at  the  hill  town,  which  four  hundred 
years  earlier  had  been  fortified  by  Philip  of  Macedon 
and  renamed  in  his  honour.  Over  this  road  Paul  and 
his  companions  almost  immediately  after  landing  at 
Neapolis  set  out  upon  their  first  missionary  tour  in 
Greece,  travelling  probably  on  foot  and  perhaps  stop- 
ping occasionally  at  some  wayside  village  to  talk  with 
the  people  concerning  the  great  Teacher  sent  to  all 
men  from  the  one  Ruler  of  the  Universe. 

And  now  while  our  little  group  of  Jewish  travellers 
is  making  its  way  to  Philippi  in  the  clear  mountain 
air,  let  us  stop  for  a  moment  to  recall  what  manner 
of  man  this  was  whose  word  became  so  formative  an 
influence  in  the  history  of  Europe.  Born  of  Jewish 
parents,  the  boy  Saul  had  spent  his  childhood  years  in 
his  native  city  of  Tarsus,  surrounded  by  Greek  in- 
fluences, for  Tarsus  was  a  university  town,  a  centre 
of  Greek  philosophy,  though,  like  all  the  rest  of 
the  known  world,  under  Roman  dominion.  The  lad's 
father  possessed  the  rights  of  Roman  citizenship  and 
may  have  been  a  man  of  considerable  wealth  and  in- 
fluence, though,  like  all  Jewish  fathers,  he  prudently 
had  his  son  taught  a  trade,  choosing  one  popular  in 
Tarsus,  that  of  tentmaking.     When  only  twelve  years 


PAUL  THE  APOSTLE  27 

old,  Saul  had  been  sent  to  Jerusalem  to  receive  a  rab- 
binical education  under  Gamaliel  at  the  great  Jewish 
university.  Here  he  probably  dwelt  with  his  sister, 
and  must  very  early  have  become  a  veritable  Hebrew 
of  the  Hebrews. 

Deeply  engrossed  in  his  theological  studies  and  full 
of  reverence  for  old  historic  institutions  and  the  men 
who  represented  them,  Saul  would  hardly  trouble  him- 
self to  investigate  the  teaching  of  this  new  prophet 
arisen  in  their  midst,  whom  he  would  suppose  to  be 
only  a  seducer  of  the  people  gathering  about  him  pub- 
licans and  sinners  and  teaching  them  to  disregard  the 
ceremonial  laws  which  formed  the  very  basis  of  their 
religion.  With  all  zealous  Jews,  Saul  would  rejoice 
in  the  execution  of  this  impostor,  hoping  that  thus 
the  menace  to  their  nation  would  be  averted.  Not  so, 
for  instead  of  being  crushed  out,  the  heresy  went  on 
increasing  at  an  alarming  rate.  It  was  even  reported 
that  the  man  whom  they  had  put  to  death  had  risen 
from  the  dead,  thus  proving  Himself  in  very  truth 
the  Son  of  God.  It  became  the  plain  duty,  then,  of 
every  man  loyal  to  his  nation  and  to  his  religion  to  do 
his  utmost  toward  blotting  out  this  danger,  even  if 
need  be  at  the  expense  of  human  life,  though  we  may 
well  believe  that  Saul  was  by  nature  too  merciful  a 
man  to  desire  such  punishment  except  in  extreme  cir- 
cumstances.^ 

Yet  to  this  bitter  persecutor,  because  he  was  sincere 
in  his  desire  to  serve  God,  there  came  at  last  that 
wonderful  vision  which  changed  Saul,  the  proud 
Pharisee,  into  Paul,  the  obedient  servant  of  Jesus 
Christ,  and  through  long  years  of  persecution  and 
hardship — suffering  greater  than  we  can  imagine — 

1  Abbott,  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Paul." 


28  THE  PRINCE  OF  MISSIONARIES 

led  him  to  conquests  for  the  Master  beside  which  all 
other  missionary  labour  pales  as  the  stars  fade  before 
the  light  of  the  dawn. 

"  And  as  I  journeyed  to  Damascus,  to  bring  them 
also  which  were  there  unto  Jerusalem  in  bonds  .  .  . 
about  noon,  suddenly  there  shone  from  heaven  a  great 
light  round  about  me.  And  I  fell  to  the  ground,  and 
heard  a  voice  saying  unto  me,  Saul,  Saul,  why  perse- 
cutest  thou  me?  And  I  answered,  Who  art  thou. 
Lord?  And  he  said  unto  me,  I  am  Jesus  of  Nazareth, 
whom  thou  persecutest." 

Three  years  in  the  deserts  of  Arabia  working  out 
his  new  theology  and  fourteen  years  of  missionary  toil 
in  "  the  regions  of  Syria  and  Cilicia  "  had  not  been 
without  their  effects,  mental  and  spiritual,  upon  the 
earnest  youth,  who  from  his  cosmopolitan  training 
was  especially  fitted  for  work  among  the  Gentiles. 
The  Paul  who  is  entering  the  city  gateway  of  Philippi 
is  a  man  in  middle  life,  whom  "  perils  in  the  city, 
perils  in  the  wilderness,  weariness  and  painfulness, 
watchings  and  hunger,"  have  aged  but  not  weakened, 
while  the  mellowed  enthusiasm  of  his  fiery  nature 
has  learned  "  to  become  all  things  to  all  men,  that  he 
may  by  all  means  save  some," 

Philippi,  whose  ruins  still  crown  the  lonely  hill  on 
which  it  stood  encircled  by  an  amphitheatre  of  moun- 
tains, was  the  first  scene  of  Paul's  missionary  labours 
in  Europe.  Here  on  the  Sabbath  following  their  ar- 
rival the  three  men  went  out  beyond  the  city  walls  "  to 
the  place  where  prayer  was  wont  to  be  made,"  and 
there  in  the  open  air  by  the  side  of  the  clear  mountain 
stream  told  the  story  of  Jesus  Christ  to  the  faithful 
women  assembled  for  worship,  of  whom  Lydia,  "  a 
seller  of  purple,  of  the  city  of  Thyatira,"  is  known  to 


PAUL  THE  APOSTLE  29 

us  by  name.     Yet  the  casting  out  of  an  unknown  spirit 
from  the  damsel  who  brought  her  masters  much  gain 
by  her  powers  of  divination,  or  even  the  strange  ex- 
periences of  Paul  in  the  Philippian  prison  when  an 
earthquake  shock  wrenched  apart  the  doorposts   of 
his  cell  and  the  heavy  bolts  fell,  leaving  Paul  and  his 
companions   free  to  escape,  with  the  dramatic  con- 
version of  his  jailor  which  followed,  do  not  interest 
us  so  much  as  those  unnamed  conversions  which  made 
possible  the  faithful  church  of  Philippi,  or  those  unre- 
corded talks  in  the  market-place  with  the  idolatrous 
Philippians,  over  whom  Paul  must  have  yearned  as 
over  lost   and   strayed   sheep.     Were  there   those — 
Roman  soldiers,  Greek  merchants,  or  some  rich  pa- 
trician come  to  the  agora  to  buy  slaves  for  his  house- 
hold— who  in  the  midst  of  the  buying  and  the  selling 
turned  aside  to  listen  to  the  words  of  this  Jewish 
rabbi  who  yet  was  no  bigot  and,  "  almost  persuaded," 
went  away  at  last  sadly,  unwilling  to  take  up  the  life 
of  hardship  and  self-sacrifice  that  such  a  faith  de- 
manded?    And  were  there  ever  hours  in  the  after 
lives  of  these  men  when,  amid  the  disappointments  of 
life,  the  memory  of  the  strange,  exalted  speech  of  this 
man  to  whom  they  had  listened  long  ago  in  the  mar- 
ket-place, the  memory,  perhaps,  of  his  words  concern- 
ing a  joy  which  no  man  could  take  away,  would  steal 
over  them   with  an   indefinable   longing  which   they 
could  not  put  away  ?     It  may  be  so,  for  human  nature 
was  not  so  different  eighteen  hundred  years  ago  from 
what  it  is  to-day. 

And  so  Paul  was  forced  to  go  away  at  last  from 
Philippi  after  having  been,  as  he  tells  us  in  his  epistle 
to  the  Thessalonians,  "  shamefully  entreated."  Dis- 
couraged?    Disheartened?     You   do   not   know   this 


30  THE  PRINCE  OF  MISSIONARIES 

man  if  for  a  moment  you  think  it  possible.  Driven 
from  Philippi,  he  followed  the  highway  through  Am- 
phipolis  and  Apollonia  to  the  thriving  seaport  of 
Thessalonica,  the  capital  and  chief  city  of  Macedonia 
and  a  place  of  much  greater  importance  than  Philippi. 
Here  he  preached  Christ  not  only  to  the  Jews,  into 
whose  synagogue  he  entered  on  two  successive  Sab- 
baths, and  where  as  a  rabbi  he  would  be  invited  to 
speak,  but  also  to  the  Gentiles,  many  of  whom  we 
know  from  Paul's  own  words  "  turned  from  idols  to 
serve  the  living  and  true  God,"  and  formed  a  church 
whose  faith  Godward  spread  abroad  "  not  only  in 
Macedonia  and  Achaia  but  in  every  place." 

As  in  Philippi,  so  in  Thessalonica,  Paul  was  not 
allowed  to  end  his  mission  peacefully,  but  on  account 
of  certain  accusations  made  by  the  Jews  that  he  was 
guilty  of  treason  in  proclaiming  another  king  than 
Caesar,  found  it  prudent  to  leave  the  city  secretly  by 
night.  The  hostility  of  the  Thessalonian  Jews  fol- 
lowed him,  moreover,  to  Berea,  and  he  was  again 
forced  to  flee,  this  time  leaving  Silas  and  Timothy 
behind  at  Berea,  while  he  went  down  to  the  seacoast 
and  took  ship  for  Athens. 

Short  as  was  Paul's  stay  in  the  Attic  capital,  prob- 
ably only  about  two  weeks  while  he  was  awaiting  the 
arrival  of  Silas  and  Timothy,  it  was  long  enough  for 
one  of  the  most  dramatic  and  enigmatical  scenes  in 
all  his  travels — the  address  on  Mars  Hill.  From  the 
rocky  summit  crowning  the  hill  of  the  war  god,  Paul 
could  look  upward  toward  the  splendid  temples  of 
the  Acropolis — the  architecturally  perfect  Parthenon 
and  her  clustering  daughters,  with  the  colossal  statue 
of  Athena  wrought  by  the  renowned  Phidias — or  let 
his  gaze  wander  over  the  mighty  city  at  his  feet  whose 


PAUL  THE  APOSTLE  31 

name  for  centuries  had  been  a  synonym  for  art  and 
learning  and  culture,  the  city  of  ^schylus  and  of 
Sophocles,   of   Thucydides  and   of  Demosthenes,   of 
Socrates  and  of  Plato.     Why  is  he  there,  we  ask, 
and  who  are  his  audience?     Is  he  surrounded  by  the 
Council  of  the  Areopagus,  summoned  here  to  give 
account  of  this  new  teaching  which  he  who  is  neither 
a  Greek  nor  a  graduate  of  any  Greek  school  of  phi- 
losophy has  dared  bring  before  them  in  the  mar- 
ket-place?     Or    is    this,    as    has    been    suggested,    a 
mass  meeting  of  those  who  have  been  listening  to  him 
down  there  in  the  agora  and  have  come  to  hear  a  more 
public  explanation  of  his  theory  of  life  and  death, 
a  great  audience  to  whom  he  can  speak  the  better  from 
this  rocky  platform?     Whoever  his  hearers  may  have 
been,  we  are  sure  that  Paul,  whose  spirit  was  stirred 
within  him  by  this  great  city  given  over  to  idolatry, 
to  false  philosophy,  and  to  falser  ideals,  reasoned  with 
them  patiently,  tactfully,  but  above  all  with  a  wonder- 
ful zeal  and  earnestness  during  those  few  moments 
when  a  greater  wisdom  than  any  yet  known  to  Greece 
came  to  Athenian  culture  only  to  find  small  lodgment 
in  the  stony  ground  where  five  centuries  earlier  the 
pure  teaching  of  Socrates  had  sought  for  fruitful  soil 
and  found  only  the  prison  and  the  poisonous  hemlock. 
Save  Dionysius,  the  Areopagite,  and  a  woman  named 
Damaris  and  certain  others,  Athens  was  apparently 
untouched  by  the  visit  of  the  great  apostle,  and  we  do 
not  know  that  any  church  of  the  living  Christ  was 
established  in  the  great,  beautiful  pagan  city. 

Perhaps  Paul  came  nearer  discouragement  as  he 
went  on  his  way  unhindered  to  Corinth  than  at  any 
time  since  his  arrival  in  Europe.  He  had  been  forced 
to  leave  Macedonia  with  his  work  still  unfinished  and, 


82  THE  PRINCE  OF  MISSIONARIES 

while  he  probably  had  not  at  any  time  contemplated  a 
protracted  mission  in  Athens,  the  cold  indifference  of 
his  Athenian  audience  when  he  touched  upon  the  deeper 
meanings  of  the  gospel,  the  realization  that  "  not  many 
mighty,  not  many  noble,  not  many  wise  "  were  willing 
to  heed  his  message,  but  that  to  these  aesthetic  Greeks 
his  words  were  as  idle  tales,  must  have  oppressed  him 
as  no  amount  of  actual  persecution  would  have  done, 
and  we  are  not  surprised  to  find  that  on  his  first 
arrival  in  Corinth  he  was  with  them  "  in  weakness 
and  in  fear  and  much  trembling." 

Yet  out  of  the  coldness  and  wickedness  of  this  great 
cosmopolitan  city — a  Roman  colony  built  up  on  his- 
toric Greek  soil  ^  and  largely  affected  by  the  Orientalism 
which  its  important  commercial  life  had  introduced — 
Paul  with  the  later  help  of  Silas  and  Timothy  gath- 
ered a  large  and  prosperous  church  of  which  we  learn 
much  from  the  letters  sent  them  on  two  later  occa- 
sions by  the  apostle.  If  Paul  felt  that  Corinth  was 
a  test  city  for  the  power  of  the  gospel  in  Europe,  he 
had  certainly  no  need  of  longer  doubting  its  adapta- 
bility to  all  sorts  and  conditions  of  men,  since  his  con- 
verts in  Corinth  seem  to  have  been  drawn  almost  en- 
tirely from  Gentile  ranks. 

We  can  picture  to  ourselves  the  great  missionary 
during  his  long  stay  in  Corinth,  labouring  with  his 
own  hands  in  the  day  that  he  may  not  be  dependent 
upon  his  new  converts  for  support,  for  he  has  no  mis- 
sionary board  to  sustain  his  work;  in  the  long  even- 
ings gathering  about  him  in  the  home  of  some  friend 
a  group  of  those  with  whom  perhaps  his  work  has 
brought  him  into  contact  and  preaching  to  them  al- 

^  Corinth  was  almost  totally  destroyed  by  the  Romans  in  146 
B.  C.  and  re-settled  under  Julius  Csesar. 


PAUL  THE  APOSTLE  33 

ways    and    only    "  Jesus    Christ    and    Him    cruci- 
fied." 

With  his  departure  from  Corinth  Paul's  first  mis- 
sionary work  in  Europe  came  to  a  close.  During 
these  three  years  he  had  sown  the  seeds  of  a  mighty 
harvest  both  by  his  enthusiastic  personal  work  and 
by  the  splendid  executive  ability  which  organized  the 
new  converts  into  strong  and  effective  bulwarks 
against  the  seductions  of  heathenism.  Only  twice 
thereafter  did  he  visit  the  Greek  cities  where  he  had 
laboured,  and  then  more  to  strengthen  the  churches  in 
their  new  faith  than  for  aggressive  missionary  work; 
but  the  seed  sown  by  his  patient  labour  grew  silently, 
steadily,  despite  persecution,  until  under  Constantine 
Christianity  was  recognized  as  the  state  religion  of 
the  Eastern  as  well  as  of  the  Western  Empire.  Its 
roots  had  struck  down  deeply  into  the  hearts  and 
minds  of  the  people,  making  it  impossible  a  few  years 
later  for  the  Emperor  Julian's  attempt  to  restore  the 
old  paganism  to  prove  successful.  The  gods  of 
Hellas  were  forever  dead.  Only  the  pen  of  the  poet 
or  the  brush  and  chisel  of  the  artist  could  thenceforth 
give  them  even  a  semblance  of  life. 

Seven  years  after  his  mission  in  Greece  Paul  went 
to  Rome, — a  prisoner.  How  differently  he  had 
planned  his  first  visit  to  the  world's  great  capital. 
From  the  beginning  of  his  apostleship  he  had  cher- 
ished the  hope  that  after  his  duty  to  the  nearer  prov- 
inces had  been  faithfully  fulfilled  he  might  preach  the 
gospel  at  Rome  also  and  found  in  the  very  heart  of 
the  heathen  empire  a  Christian  church.  But  while  he 
was  still  labouring  in  the  East,  other  men  had  seen 
the  open  door  and  had  entered  in,  so  that  at  the  time 
of  his  famous  letter  to  the  Romans  written  during  his 


34.         THE  PRINCE  OF  MISSIONARIES 

second  visit  to  Corinth,  there  was  already  in  Rome  a 
group  of  disciples  whose  faith  was  "  proclaimed 
throughout  the  whole  world."  True  to  his  conviction 
that  it  was  unwise  to  build  on  another's  foundation, 
Paul  bravely  gave  up  his  plans  for  evangelistic  work 
in  Rome,  promising,  however,  to  visit  the  little  church 
which  had  grown  up  under  the  shadow  of  Caesar's 
household  when,  after  having  carried  the  contribu- 
tions of  Macedonia  and  Achaia  to  the  poor  saints  at 
Jerusalem,  he  should  journey  by  way  of  Rome  to  the 
new  and  untouched  fields  of  Spain. 

At  the  close  of  this  letter  to  the  Roman  Christians, 
it  is  touching  to  read  the  apostle's  request  for  their 
prayers,  that  he  "  may  be  delivered  from  them  that 
are  disobedient  in  Judea  "  and  ''may  come  unto  them 
in  joy  through  the  will  of  God."  Was  the  shadow  of 
the  bitter  experiences  through  which  he  must  pass  be- 
fore he  should  see  these  unknown  friends  already  rest- 
ing upon  him, — the  fierce  attack  of  the  Jewish  mob 
in  the  Temple ;  the  imprisonment  in  the  gloomy  fort- 
ress of  Antonia;  the  plot  of  the  forty  Jews  of  which 
he  was  warned  by  his  nephew;  the  wearisome  night 
journey  to  Csesarea;  the  long  two  years'  waiting  in 
custody  while  Felix  hoped  for  a  bribe;  the  disappoint- 
ing trial  before  Festus  and  the  appeal  to  Caesar;  the 
winter  journey  to  Rome  with  storm  and  shipwreck; 
and  last  of  all  an  entrance  into  the  Imperial  capital, 
not  for  a  refreshing  visit  with  those  of  like  precious 
faith  before  the  beginning  of  a  larger  work,  but  as 
a  prisoner  in  bonds  for  whom  somewhere  in  the  dim 
shadows  of  the  future  the  sword  and  the  martyr's 
crown  were  waiting. 

Very  meagre  is  our  knowledge  of  Paul's  life  after 
his  arrival  in  the  City  of  the  Caesars.     A  picture  of 


PAUL  THE  APOSTLE  35 

the  great  missionary  chained  to  a  Roman  soldier  and 
telling  the  story  of  Christ  unhindered  in  his  own  hired 
house  to  all  who  will  come  to  hear  it,  winning  doubt- 
less many  of  his  stalwart  keepers  as  soldiers  of  the 
Cross;  a  vision  of  the  tireless  apostle  writing  long 
letters  to  the  Christian  churches  which  he  has  planted 
and  whose  increasing  conquests  are  his  joy  and 
crown, — such  are  the  glimpses  which  have  come 
down  to  us  of  the  two  years  following  his  appeal 
to  Csesar.  May  there  have  been  a  half-unconquer- 
able sense  of  loneliness  as  he  watched  the  growth 
of  the  Roman  church  not  entirely  according  to  his 
teaching  and  ideals  and  realized  that,  honoured  as 
he  was,  his  own  personal  efforts  were  not  necessary 
to  its  growth  ?  "  Nevertheless  because  Christ  is 
preached  I  do  rejoice  and  will  rejoice,"  he  writes  to 
his  faithful  Philippian  friends,  albeit  with  a  little 
touch  of  resignation  underlying  the  brave  words,  as  if 
his  continuance  in  the  flesh  were  not  needful  to  any 
except  these  first  churches  of  his  planting.  Perhaps 
with  his  clear  vision  he  half  foresaw  how  un-Pauline 
the  church  at  Rome  would  become  in  its  doctrine  and 
practices.  Well  for  him  that  he  could  not  know  how 
soon  the  fetters  of  ceremonial  and  materialism  were 
to  bind  the  ecclesiastical  power  which  should  grow  up 
on  the  foundations  of  political  ascendency  or  how 
seemingly  fruitless  would  have  been  his  efforts  to 
throw  off  forever  the  shackles  of  the  Law  and  to  make 
the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  a  purely  spiritual  force. 

No  record  has  been  preserved  of  the  result  of  Paul's 
trial  before  Csesar  or  of  the  final  time  or  place  of  the 
apostle's  martyrdom.  It  has  been  suggested  that  he 
could  hardly  have  been  set  at  liberty  without  some 
mention  in  the  early  Fathers  of  so  important  a  victory 


36         THE  PRINCE  OF  MISSIONARIES 

for  the  Christian  faith.  On  the  other  hand  the  Pas- 
toral Epistles  point  to  a  release  and  a  second  impris- 
onment, while  reference  to  the  apostle  in  writings  of 
the  next  century  represent  him  as  reaching  "  the  limit 
of  the  west,"  perhaps  the  Roman  province  of  Hispania 
or  Spain.  But  whenever  his  earthly  mission  came  to 
a  close,  whether  at  the  end  of  his  two  years'  imprison- 
ment or  in  the  persecutions  under  Nero,  it  was  not 
until  he  had  won  for  himself  first  place  on  the  honour 
roll  of  the  missionary  heroes  of  all  time.  "  In  weari- 
ness and  painfulness,  in  watchings,  in  cold  and  hun- 
ger, in  perils  of  the  heathen,  in  perils  of  false 
brethren,"  he  had  preached  the  gospel  for  many  a  long 
year  and  had  been  besides  the  organizer  and  counsellor 
of  hundreds  of  churches  in  the  very  strongholds  of 
paganism,  formulating  missionary  methods  for  all 
who  should  come  after  him.  Of  this  man  to  whom 
much  was  given — education,  mental  power,  a  wonder- 
ful enthusiasm — a  single  word  has  gone  echoing  down 
the  ages,  "  Well  done,  good  and  faithful  servant. 
Enter  thou  into  the  joy  of  thy  Lord  as  thou  hast  en- 
tered into  the  hearts  of  all  his  followers  in  every 
land." 


Ill 

A  MISSIONARY-BISHOP 

WULFILA  THE  GOTH 

"Thro'  darkness  and  storm  and  weariness  of  mind  and  of 
body  is  there  built  a  passage  for  His  created  ones  to  the  gates  of 
light." — Tennyson. 

IN  the  University  Library  of  the  ancient  city  of 
Upsala,  Sweden,  there  is  a  precious  manuscript, 
older  than  the  Scandinavian  Edda,  older  even 
than  the  Saxon  Beowulf  or  the  German  Nibelungen- 
lied, — the  Bible  of  a  great  missionary  translated  into 
a  lost  tongue  and  for  a  lost  people,  the  Bible  of  Wul- 
fila  the  Goth.  Upon  its  pages  of  purple  vellum  the 
strange  Gothic  text  has  been  transcribed  in  lines  of 
silver  by  what  patient  fingers  we  know  not.  Only  a 
little  more  than  a  third  of  the  original  volume,  which 
contained  the  four  gospels,  now  remains,  enclosed  in 
a  solid  silver  binding  of  the  seventeenth  century  and 
known  probably  from  its  lettering  as  the  Codex  Ar- 
genteus  or  Silver  Manuscript.  During  many  years, 
while  men  cared  more  for  warfare  than  for  learning, 
this  precious  book  lay  hidden  in  the  dusty  library  of 
the  German  monks  of  Werden,  and  the  world  did  not 
trouble  itself  greatly  that  the  Gothic  language  had 
perished  with  the  Gothic  kingdoms.  When  at  last  the 
faded  manuscript  pages  were  discovered  and  after 
many  vicissitudes  brought  to  their  present  home  in 

37 


S8  A  MISSIONARY-BISHOP 

Sweden,  they  were  still  for  more  than  a  century  sup- 
posed to  be  the  only  fragment  of  Gothic  literature 
extant.  Yet  in  the  last  two  hundred  years  the  old 
monasteries  have  yielded  from  their  rich  store  of 
treasure,  fragments  sufficient  very  nearly  to  complete 
the  translation  which  the  missionary-bishop  made  of 
the  gospels  and  epistles  and  to  give  at  least  a  glimpse 
of  his  work  on  the  Old  Testament.  In  these  scattered 
pages,  lost  for  m.any  centuries  to  be  brought  to  light 
in  a  new  era  of  the  world's  thought,  we  read  again 
the  parable  of  missionary  effort  and  missionary  ac- 
complishment. For  what  is  the  work  of  Carey  and 
the  heroic  men  and  women  who  have  succeeded  him 
but  a  continuation  and  an  expansion  of  the  labours  of 
Paul  and  of  Wulfila,  of  Augustine  and  of  Columba, 
of  Ansgar  and  of  Boniface,  interrupted  for  a  time, 
it  is  true,  but  only  to  come  to  richer  fruitage  in  these 
later  centuries? 

In  the  years  following  Paul's  missionary  labours  in 
Europe,  the  faith  which  He  had  preached  found  its 
way  silently  and  steadily  into  every  part  of  the  great 
Roman  Empire.  The  legions  carried  it  with  them 
into  Gaul  and  Spain  and  Britain;  persecution  gained 
for  it  new  adherents  and  broader  avenues  of  service; 
in  times  of  peace  men  told  the  glad  story  to  neigh- 
bours and  friends  and  by  a  new  spirit  of  brotherly 
love  enlisted  many  of  them  in  the  service  of  the  Christ. 
Thus  while  the  old  pagan  Rome,  the  Rome  of  splen- 
dour and  power,  climbed  the  mountain  crest  and  began 
its  slow  descent  into  the  valley  beyond,  a  new  force, 
whose  strength  lay  not  in  material  glory  but  in  justice 
and  mercy  and  holy  living,  was  building  upon  the  old 
foundations  a  grander  and  more  imposing  structure. 

But  if  the  light  was  brightening  over  the  shores  of 


WULFILA  THE  GOTH  39 

the  Mediterranean  and  the  Roman  provinces  of  the 
west,  darkness  still  rested  heavily  upon  the  mighty 
hordes  of  half-civilized  peoples  forever  moving  in  con- 
fused masses  beyond  the  portals  of  the  Empire. 
Of  these  many  folk  wanderings  none  were  of  greater 
moment  to  the  Empire  and  to  Europe  than  that  migra- 
tion of  unknown  date  which  brought  to  the  shores 
of  the  Black  Sea  a  people  destined  to  bear  no  small 
part  in  the  finat  overthrow  of  Rome  and  the  growth 
of  new  powers.  Of  the  origin  and  early  history  of 
these  Gothic  tribes  we  can  only  conjecture.^  Not 
until  Wulfila  devised  an  alphabet  for  them  in  the 
fourth  century  did  they  possess  the  means  of  a  writ- 
ten literature,  and  it  was  only  when  the  rich  provinces 
of  the  East  tempted  them  to  marauding  inroads  that 
mention  of  them  appears  among  the  Latin  writers. 
When  the  searchlight  of  history  is  at  last  thrown  upon 
the  ancestors  of  Theodoric  and  Alaric  we  find  them 
dwelling  in  the  coast  region  between  the  Danube  and 
the  Dnieper  and  divided  roughly  into  Wisigoths  or 
West  Goths  and  Ostrogoths  or  East  Goths.  As  yet 
these  barbarians  were  pagans,  worshipping  perhaps 
the  same  gods  as  their  brethren  of  the  German  for- 
ests, and  like  them  looking  forward  to  the  joys  of 
mead-drinking  and  hunting  in  a  Valhalla  reserved  for 
the  fearless  warrior. 

Among  this  fierce  and  impressionable  folk  there 
came  as  captives  about  the  middle  of  the  third  cen- 
tury certain  men  and  women  of  the  Christian  faith 
whom  bands  of  Gothic  pirates  had  brought  thither 
with  rich  store  of  wheat  and  lustrous  silks  and  carven 
gold  and  silver  ornament  from  the  Cappadocian  towns 
across  the  sea.  As  often  happens,  their  very  misfor- 
tune brought  to  these  captives  an  opportunity   for 


40  A  MISSIONARY-BISHOP 

service  which  could  never  have  been  theirs  in  the  tran- 
quil life  of  their  Asiatic  homes.  For  these  fierce  but 
hospitable  Goths  as  they  watched  the  simple,  blame- 
less living  of  their  Christian  servants  and  felt  the 
power  of  their  quiet  ministrations  in  sickness  and  sor- 
row, gave  more  and  more  heed  to  the  message  of 
the  one  God  and  of  His  Christ  thus  beautifully 
brought  to  them  by  their  own  hearthstones.  And 
so  by  the  next  century  we  find  a  Christian  church 
established  among  them  and  the  name  of  at  least  one 
Gothic  bishop  among  those  present  at  the  great  coun- 
cil held  at  Nicsea  in  325. 

Meanwhile  events  of  great  importance  were  taking 
place  within  the  Empire.  For  the  first  time  Roman 
soldiers  marched  to  battle  beneath  the  emblem  of  the 
Cross,  and  Christianity  was  publicly  recognized. 
With  the  dying  of  the  old  faiths  and  the  extension 
of  dominion  in  the  East  the  stately  capital  on  the 
Tiber  lost  its  prestige  as  the  political  and  religious 
center  of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  a  new  Rome,  the 
City  of  Constantine,  established  upon  the  site  of  the 
Greek  Byzantium  beside  the  blue  Bosphorus,  began  its 
long  career  as  the  guardian  of  Roman  civilization  and 
government. 

Through  the  gates  of  the  new  capital,  splendid  with 
its  recently  erected  public  buildings,  there  came  on  a 
day  in  the  later  years  of  Constantine's  reign  a  lad  of 
perhaps  twenty  years,  clothed  in  the  garb  of  a  Gothic 
nobleman,  one  of  a  band  of  hostages  or  envoys  sent 
to  Constantinople  as  the  result  of  negotiations  be- 
tween the  Emperor  and  his  dangerous  neighbours 
across  the  Danube.  Whether  the  boy  Wulfila  was  of 
pure  Gothic  stock  or,  as  one  chronicler  suggests,  was 
descended  from  Cappadocian  ancestors,  it  was  never- 


WULFILA  THE  GOTH  41 

theless  as  a  representative  of  the  Gothic  people  or 
more  probably  as  a  hostage  from  them,  that  the  youth 
had    come    to   the    Emperor's    court    with    doubtless 
naught  but  Gothic  traditions  to  influence  him  in  his 
memories  of  home.     Perhaps  he  was  already  a  Chris- 
tian, for  the  work  begun  in  Eastern  Gothia  had  not 
stopped  there,  but  had  gained  adherents  in  the  Danu- 
bian  provinces  as  well.     How  valuable  a  picture  some 
historian  might  have  given  us  had  he  cared  to  paint 
the  life  of  this  young  Goth  during  the  months  follow- 
ing his  arrival  in  the  city  of  the  great  Constantine. 
We  should  be  made  to  see  him  doubtless  deep  in  study 
of  the  Greek  and  Latin  languages,  of  which  we  know 
he   gained   a   mastery.     Perhaps,   too,   he   was   now 
first  becoming  imbued  with  the  principles  of  Arian- 
ism,    which    he    bequeathed    as    a    heritage    to    the 
Gothic  churches  of  the  succeeding  centuries.     Very 
surely  there  was  being  awakened  within  him  through 
the  influences  of  this  Christian  city  a  love  for  the  Mas- 
ter which  later  led  him  to  devote  his  splendid  intellec- 
tual powers  to  the  uplifting  of  a  comparatively  un- 
known people  whose  future  he  probably  did  not  fore- 
see,— a  work  so  zealously  accomplished  that  the  un- 
selfish  missionary    forever    overshadows    the    Arian 
bishop. 

His  studies  completed,  Wulfila  became  a  "  lector  " 
or  reader  among  those  of  his  own  people  who  were 
serving  in  the  Emperor's  armies.  It  may  be  that  this 
work  took  him  outside  Constantinople  to  the  garri- 
sons scattered  throughout  Asia  Minor  and  that  as  he 
went  from  place  to  place  reading  and  explaining  the 
Scriptures  to  the  unlettered  Gothic  soldiers,  his  com- 
passion for  these  men  who  listened  so  eagerly  to  the 
gospel  story  led  him  to  begin  that  monumental  life 


4.2  A  MISSIONARY-BISHOP 

work  which  places  him  by  the  side  of  Luther  and  of 
Wyclif.  It  would  be  interesting,  if  we  might,  to 
trace  the  growth  of  the  apostle's  missionary  zeal  from 
these  beginnings  down  to  his  final  consecration  as 
Bishop  of  the  Christians  in  Gothia  four  years  after 
the  death  of  Constantine.  Unfortunately,  the  his- 
torians were  too  much  concerned  with  matters  of  doc- 
trine to  give  us  those  little  touches  of  daily  life  from 
which  we  might  form  a  pictiire  of  the  missionary  and 
his  great  work. 

It  was  no  easy  task  to  which  Wulfila  had  been 
called.  A  heathen  prince  ruled  the  tribes  among 
whom  the  missionary  began  his  labours,  while  of  the 
people  themselves  the  majority  were  probably  still 
pagan.  Centuries  of  turbulent  history,  the  belief 
that  Valhalla  was  open  only  to  the  valorous  chief- 
tain, the  blood  of  warlike  ancestors, — the  whole  tra- 
ditions and  character  of  this  people, — were  at  vari- 
ance with  the  gentle  precepts  of  Christianity.  To 
break  the  bow  and  cut  the  spear  in  sunder;  to  gather 
a  peace-loving,  pastoral  people  from  out  this  whirl- 
pool of  temptation;  to  give  them  a  written  language 
and  then  a  Bible,  not  only  translated  into  that  lan- 
guage but  filled  with  figures  and  illustrations  which 
they  could  understand,  while  the  spirit  of  its  teaching 
was  kept  intact;  to  snatch  this  helpless  folk  from  the 
storm  of  persecution  which  their  devotion  brought 
upon  them, — such  was  the  great  task  which  Wulfila 
took  upon  himself,  as  he  went  forth  beyond  the  boun- 
daries of  the  Empire  upon  his  new  mission. 

With  the  helpers  whom  he  had  chosen  Wulfila  must 
have  gone  about  among  his  countrymen,  speaking  to 
them  in  their  own  tongue  of  the  things  of  the  King- 
dom, healing  the  sick,  comforting  the  sorrowing,  con- 


WULFILA  THE  GOTH  43 

futing  by  his  words  and  his  life  the  pagan  faiths  by 
which  his  flock  was  surrounded,  and  in  his  leisure 
moments  when  the  day's  many  tasks  were  done  zeal- 
ously labouring  upon  his  great  translation  by  which 
the  message  was  to  be  continued  when  the  messenger 
was  gone. 

During  seven  years  Wulfila  laboured  thus  among 
his  people  with  what  results  we  may  judge  from  the 
opposition  he  aroused.  For  at  the  end  of  this  period 
of  service  a  persecution  was  directed  against  the 
Christian  Goths  by  their  still  pagan  ruler,  so  bitter 
and  so  determined  that  to  save  his  flock  from  utter 
extermination  Wulfila  led  them  forth  like  a  great 
army  to  dwell  within  the  borders  of  the  Empire. 
Had  the  church  in  Gothia  remained  small  and  uninflu- 
ential,  their  prince  would  hardly  have  given  them 
more  than  passing  notice;  but  without  question  the 
personality  of  the  man  who  to  the  strength  of  his 
Teutonic  training  added  the  culture  of  the  Empire 
had  won  converts  not  only  from  the  humble  folk  but 
also  from  the  ranks  of  the  more  intelligent  Goths, 
and  had  thus  awakened  fear  and  hatred  in  the  hearts 
of  the  heathen  priests. 

We  may  imagine  the  scenes  which  followed  the 
execution  of  the  first  martyrs, — the  secret  councils, 
the  hurried  and  stealthy  preparations  for  flight,  the 
sad  departure  from  their  homes,  the  long  and  diffi- 
cult passage  of  the  Danube  by  so  great  a  host,  carry- 
ing with  them  doubtless  their  household  effects  and 
their  cattle,  and  finally  the  founding  of  new  homes  be- 
neath the  shadow  of  the  Balkans.  Then  the  curtain 
falls  again  upon  the  picture  of  the  great  missionary 
and  his  faithful  church.  For  more  than  thirty  years 
longer  we  know  that  he  lived  and  laboured  among 


44  A  MISSIONARY-BISHOP 

this  people  whom  he  had  led  forth  from  spiritual  and 
material  bondage.  During  this  time  we  are  sure  that 
he  did  not  cease  his  work  among  the  farther  Goths, 
sending  out  missionaries  doubtless  to  preach  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  western  provinces.  At  home  he 
would  concern  himself  with  the  education  of  the 
youth  of  his  people,  as  in  the  case  of  Auxentius,  his 
pupil  and  biographer,  and  with  writing  expositions 
for  his  faithful  flock  or  preparing  tracts  in  the  inter- 
ests of  Arianism.  He  was  besides  the  judge,  the 
counsellor,  and  the  spiritual  father  of  all  this  Meso- 
Gothic  people,  and  may  also  at  times  have  attended 
the  great  religious  gatherings  of  the  Empire  with 
which  a  man  of  so  much  influence  and  intellectual 
power  would  keep  in  closest  touch. 

During  the  last  years  of  the  bishopric  of  Wulfila 
renewed  migrations  brought  his  countrymen  in  large 
numbers  from  the  provinces  beyond  the  Danube,  for 
the  Hunnish  hosts  had  appeared  among  them,  burn- 
ing and  slaying  wherever  they  went,  and  there  was 
no  longer  any  safety  in  the  home  country.  The  first 
of  these  bands  of  refugees  were  led  by  a  Christian 
prince,  Fritigern.  But  the  promises  which  the 
Roman  emperor  made  them  not  being  kept  by  his  of- 
ficials, the  first  year  which  the  Goths  spent  in  the  Em- 
pire was  signalized  by  ravaging  and  burning  of  the 
provinces  so  far  as  Thrace  and  by  a  final  defeat  of  the 
Emperor  Valens  near  Adrianople  in  378.  Under 
Theodosius,  the  successor  of  Valens,  these  Gothic 
tribes,  which  had  been  augmented  by  later  arrivals,  at 
last  found  homes  along  the  southern  shores  of  the 
Danube,  accepted  Christianity  according  to  the  Arian 
creed  when  they  were  not  already  Christians,  and  be- 
came   influential    subjects    of    the    Eastern    Empire. 


WULFILA  THE  GOTH  45 

How  much  or  how  little  Wulfila  had  to  do  with  the 
Christianizing  of  these  new  Gothic  subjects  we  do 
not  know. 

A  little  more  than  two  years  after  the  battle  of 
Adrianople  the  veteran  missionary  of  the  Goths  was 
summoned  to  Constantinople  to  defend  his  doctrines 
against  new  beliefs.  But  Wulfila  was  an  old  man 
now,  worn  out  with  incessant  labours,  and  when  he 
found  himself  at  last  within  the  city  where  he  had 
been  brought  so  many  years  before  a  hostage  to  the 
emperor's  court,  and  when  he  found  the  city  given 
over  to  all  the  bitterness  of  religious  controversy,  his 
strength  failed  him  and  the  new  year  saw  the  passing 
of  a  great  man  and  a  faithful  labourer.  A  few  days 
later  in  the  same  city  there  died  one  of  the  last  great 
leaders  of  Gothic  paganism,  perhaps  the  very  prince 
who  had  persecuted  the  church  of  Wulfila's  planting, 
— the  heathen  chief  Athanaric,  who,  forced  to  take 
refuge  within  the  Empire,  had  come  to  Constantino- 
ple to  do  homage  to  the  emperor.  The  future  was 
decided.  Athanaric  the  heathen  had  failed,  and 
Wulfila  the  Christian  had  won  the  Gothic  people  to 
a  better  way. 


IV 

BONDSMAN  AND  EMANCIPATOR 

The  Story  of  Patricius 

"  He  rose  a  man  who  laid  him  down  a  slave, 
Shook  from  his  locks  the  ashes  of  the  grave, 

And  outward  trod 
Into  the  glorious  liberty  of  God. 

"  So  went  he  forth  ;  but  in  God's  time  he  came 
To  light  on  Uilline's  hills  a  holy  flame  ; 

And,  dying,  gave 
The  land  a  saint  that  lost  him  as  a  slave," 

—  Whtttier,  "  The  Proclamation:' 

WHILE  Wulfila  the  Goth  was  preaching  the 
gospel  to  his  kinsfolk  on  the  borders  of  the 
Eastern  Empire,  far  to  the  west,  beyond 
Roman  Britain,  where  the  angry  surges  of  the  At- 
lantic break  upon  Irish  coasts,  there  already  existed, 
if  we  may  believe  tradition,  a  considerable  pagan 
civilization,  which  needed  only  the  life-giving  mes- 
sage of  the  great  Patricius  to  develop  that  age  of 
Irish  learning  the  influence  of  which  became  Europe's 
guiding  star  in  the  long  night  of  the  Dark  Ages. 

That  there  were  Christians  in  Ireland  when  Patri- 
cius began  his  mission  in  the  island  we  know  almost 
certainly.  Of  those  first  converts,  however,  we  have 
no  written  record.  We  tread,  indeed,  a  land  of 
shadows,  when  we  touch  the  whole  subject  of  Ire- 
land's evangelization.     But  we  can  conjecture  some- 

46 


THE  STORY  OF  PATRICIUS  47 

thing  of  it  all — how  one  and  another  heard  the  mes- 
sage in  some  foreign  port  or  listened  to  the  words  of 
the  Christian  captives  whom  their  pirate  bands  had 
brought  back  from  successful  raids  on  British  or 
Gallic  coasts,  until  throughout  the  villages  which  dot- 
ted the  hills  and  glens  of  eastern  Hibernia  many  a 
seeker  after  truth  was  to  be  found  ready  to  welcome 
the  great  missionary  when  he  came  at  last  among 
them  to  devote  his  life  to  the  development  of  these 
scattered  beginnings.  The  task  of  Patricius  was  not, 
then,  the  task  of  Augustine  or  of  Aidan  among  the 
Saxons  and  Angles  of  Britain  two  centuries  later. 
The  work  of  Ireland's  great  apostle  was  rather  to 
strengthen  and  unify  the  Christianity  already  exist- 
ing, to  influence  the  Irish  princes  in  its  favour,  and 
to  preach  the  gospel  in  districts  as  yet  untouched  by 
its  influence. 

So  covered  are  the  real  facts  of  his  life  and  work 
by  the  thick  stratum  of  fantastic  legend  which  has 
formed  in  the  centuries  since  his  death  that  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  obtain  a  very  satisfactory  picture  of  the  man 
who  made  the  Christian  church  a  permanent  institu- 
tion in  Ireland.  Yet  from  one  and  another  source 
we  may  gather  enough  to  convince  us  that  the  real 
Patricius  was  one  of  the  most  sane  and  apostolic  of 
labourers.  Although  he  has  been  so  entirely  appro- 
priated by  the  Irish  nation  and  the  Irish  church,  Pa- 
tricius went  to  Ireland  a  foreign  missionary,  and  to 
the  end  of  his  life  remained  loyal  to  the  home  coun- 
try. He  was  not  Irish,  though  he  had  served  in 
bondage  among  the  Scots  and  had  learned  to  love  his 
warlike  yet  tolerant  captors.  Years  later  when  he 
returned  to  the  land  of  his  captivity  on  his  great  mis- 
sion he  encountered  much  opposition  from  his  British 


48         BONDSMAN  AND  EMANCIPATOR 

friends  and  kinsmen  and  left  them  "  with  tears  and 
weeping,"  for  though  Scots  and  Britons  were  prob- 
ably both  of  Celtic  stock,  yet  the  two  peoples  facing 
each  other  across  the  Irish  sea  were  of  a  differing 
speech  and  to  all  intents  and  purposes  strangers  and 
foreigners.  I  have  said,  too,  that  Patricius  was  one 
of  the  most  apostolic  of  Christian  missionaries.  Let 
any  one  who  doubts  this  statement  read  that  noble 
document,  his  Confession,  which  is  universally  con- 
ceded to  be  genuine.^  No  mention  of  the  wonderful 
miracles  which  later  writers  have  attributed  to  him 
will  you  find  in  its  pages.  What  you  do  find  always 
and  only  is  a  simple,  strong  faith  in  the  Christ  whom 
he  followed  and  whose  life  and  words  he  so  diligently 
studied.  "  Indoctus "  he  may  have  been  in  secular 
scholarship,  but,  like  the  prisoner  in  Bedford  jail,  he 
knew  his  Bible  and  even  more  than  Bunyan  had 
caught  the  truly  unselfish  spirit  of  its  teaching.  Its 
imagery  and  its  language  gave  power  to  his  pen, 
while  in  the  brief  Confession  we  find  no  fewer  than 
twenty-five  direct  quotations  from  the  Scriptures. 
Such  evidence  can  leave  us  very  little  in  doubt  of  the 
simplicity  of  the  gospel  he  preached.  Yet  in  this 
love  of  the  grand  old  Book  Patricius  is  but  a  type  of 
that  whole  noble  army  of  Christian  missionaries  con- 
cerned in  the  evangelization  of  Europe.  Almost 
without  exception  they  were  men  who  fed  the  springs 
of  their  soul  life  upon  the  word  of  God.  Had  the 
work  they  began  gone  on  in  the  spirit  of  its  founders, 
normal  growth  would  have  removed  the  necessity  of 
a  Reformation, 

Patricius,  known  to  the  church  as  St.  Patrick,  and 
probably  called  by  his   British  parents   Succat,   was 

^See  Appendix  III. 


THE  STORY  OF  PATRICIUS  49 

born  in  the  last  years  of  the  fourth  century  in  the 
village  of  Bannova  or  Benneventa, — a  place  which 
has  been  variously  located  in  southeastern  Britain,  at 
Dumbarton  on  the  Clyde,  and  even  in  Armoric  Gaul. 
The  family,  as  their  name  implies,  were  of  good  birth 
and  possessed  the  rights  of  Roman  citizenship.  Both 
father  and  grandfather  had  taken  orders  in  the 
church,^  perhaps  to  avoid  the  heavy  taxes  incumbent 
on  the  landed  classes,  though  they  seem  still  to  have 
retained  their  property.  When  Patricius  was  in  his 
seventeenth  year  a  company  of  Irish  Scots,  probably 
under  Niall  of  the  Nine  Hostages,  plundered  the 
whole  district  about  Benneventa,  carrying  off  many 
youth  as  captives  to  Ireland,  among  whom  was  Pa- 
tricius. 

The  next  six  years  the  British  lad  served  a  hard 
master  herding  cattle,  tradition  says,  on  the  slopes  of 
a  mountain  in  what  is  now  Antrim.  His  Confession, 
however,  would  seem  to  imply  that  the  years  of  his 
captivity  were  spent  in  western  Ireland,  in  the  king- 
dom of  Connaught.^  But  whatever  was  the  place 
of  bondage  the  years  of  his  captivity  must  have  been 
lonely  enough,  for  there  was  no  prophet  to  whisper 
in  the  boy's  ear  how  great  a  good  his  weary  exile 
would  eventually  bring  to  Ireland.  During  the  long 
days  and  nights  on  the  mountainside,  when  the  long- 
ing for  the  homeland  was  strong  upon  the  lad  who 
on  his  own  confession  "  knew  not  the  Eternal  "  in 
the  days  of  his  happy,  thoughtless  boyhood,  Patri- 
cius learned  to  lift  up  his  heart  to  the  Father  in 
heaven.  "  A  divine  awe  and  aspiration  grew  in  me, 
so  that  I  often  prayed  a  hundred  times  a  day  and  as 

*See  Appendix  I,  Note  i. 

*This  is  the  view  which  Professor  Bury  holds. 


50         BONDSMAN  AND  EMANCIPATOR 

many  in  the  night.  I  often  remained  in  the  woods  or 
on  the  hills,  rising  to  pray  while  it  was  yet  dark,  in 
snow  or  frost  or  rain."  So  once  more  the  wrath 
of  men  was  made  to  work  lasting  good  and  the  lad 
who  had  been  ruthlessly  torn  from  his  parents  to 
serve  in  bitter  bondage  in  a  strange  land  found  there 
on  the  open  hillslopes  under  the  great,  friendly  heav- 
ens the  Christ  whom  he  had  rejected  when  he  felt 
no  need  of  His  friendship.  And  because  he  learned 
in  those  days  to  walk  in  newness  of  life,  years  after- 
ward the  love  of  Christ,  he  tells  us,  constrained  him 
to  return  to  the  folk  by  the  western  sea  to  establish 
there  the  worship  of  his  Master. 

At  last,  weary  of  his  unjust  bondage,  Patricius  fell 
to  thinking  of  a  means  of  escape.  While  his  mind 
was  yet  in  a  chaos  of  fear  and  doubt  and  expectation, 
he  dreamed  one  night  as  he  slept  by  his  herds  that 
he  heard  a  voice  saying  to  him,  "  Blessed  youth,  soon 
thou  shalt  return  to  thine  own  land.  Behold,  thy 
ship  is  ready.  But  it  is  not  near,  but  perhaps  two 
hundred  thousand  paces."  On  awaking,  the  lad  at 
once  set  out  for  a  distant  port  where  ships  were  con- 
stantly coming  and  going,  and  succeeded  in  escaping 
on  a  vessel  loaded  with  Irish  dogs  and  destined  for 
western  Gaul  or  Britain. 

So  far  we  are  treading  on  pretty  firm  ground,  for 
we  have  the  Confession  to  help  us.  Of  the  next 
period  we  are  not  so  sure.  A  little  more  than  twenty 
years  later  Patricius  returned  as  a  missionary  to  the 
land  of  his  captivity.  Where  did  he  spend  the  inter- 
vening period  ?  In  the  one  really  authentic  source  of 
information  we  find  very  little  help,  for  the  Confes- 
sion was  not  written  as  an  autobiography  and  is  often 
incoherent  and  provokingly  vague.     We  are  told  that 


THE  STORY  OF  PATRICIUS  51 

after  three  days  Patricius  reached  a  desert  country 
through  which  he  travelled  two  months  with  the  com- 
panions of  his  voyage,  that  later  he  visited  his  British 
kinsmen,  who  urged  him  to  remain  among  them;  that 
he  was  divinely  called  to  missionary  work ;  that  some- 
where he  received  training  for  his  task,  and  contrary 
to  the  will  of  his  friends,  "  God  directing,"  went  back 
to  the  Irish  people.  Was  the  land  which  he  reached 
Gaul  or  Britain?  Did  he  visit  Lerins  and  study  at 
Auxerre  ?  Or  did  he  get  the  rude  training  which  led 
him  to  call  himself  "  indoctus  "  and  "  rustissimus  "  at 
the  newly  founded  school  of  Candida  Casa  in  Gallo- 
way? These  questions  are  not  after  all  essential  to 
our  understanding  of  his  missionary  spirit.  Far  more 
interesting  is  the  account  which  he  has  left  us  of  his 
call  to  service.  Possessed  with  the  thought  of  Ire- 
land's need,  Patricius  slept  and  dreamed  that  one  Vic- 
toricus  stood  by  his  bedside  with  letters,  the  first  of 
which  Patricius  opened  and  read.  Even  as  he  read, 
he  seemed  to  hear  the  piteous  pleading  of  the  distant 
Irish  folk  among  whom,  he  had  spent  his  youth,  pray- 
ing him  to  return  and  tell  them  of  his  Christ.  Not 
as  yet,  however,  was  he  willing  to  obey  the  heavenly 
vision,  for  he  felt  himself  unfitted  for  the  great  work 
and  doubtless  still  remembered  with  horror  the  years 
of  his  Irish  captivity,  and  only  when  a  second  time 
the  voice  came  to  him  in  the  silence  of  the  night  with 
the  reproachful  words,  "  Who  has  laid  down  his  life 
for  my  sake  ? "  did  Patricius  make  the  great  sur- 
render. 

Years  passed,  however,  before  the  apostle  was  able 
to  answer  the  Macedonian  cry.  When  in  431  Pal- 
ladius  was  sent  as  bishop  to  Ireland,  it  was  not  to  the 
unbelieving  Celts  but  to  the  believing  Christians,  "  ad 


52         BONDSMAN  AND  EMANCIPATOR 

Scottos  in  Christum  credentes,"  that  he  was  com- 
missioned by  Pope  Celestine.  After  one  short  year 
the  mission  of  Palladius  was  brought  to  a  close  by 
the  death  of  its  leader,  and  Patricius  found  the  open 
door  for  which  he  had  been  so  long  waiting,  sailing 
at  last  for  Ireland,  whether  with  the  Roman  bishop's 
sanction  or  independently  we  do  not  know. 

The  principal  Irish  port  for  voyagers  from  Britain 
at  this  time  was  the  little  town  of  Inverdea,  a  few 
miles  north  of  the  present  Wicklow.  Through  this 
port  probably  Patricius  and  his  band  of  helpers 
passed  on  their  way  to  their  new  field  of  labour. 
Their  first  missionary  journey  took  them,  tradition 
states,  into  the  region  of  Lough  Strangford,  where 
they  were  found  by  the  servants  of  Dichu,  a  man  of 
much  importance  in  the  district,  before  whom  they 
were  brought  in  all  haste.  Their  master  seems  to 
have  recognized  Patricius  as  a  man  worthy  of  respect 
and  a  hearing.  He  became  the  missionary's  first  con- 
vert, we  are  told,  and  gave  land  for  a  church  at  Sab- 
hall  or  Saul,  where  a  wooden  barn  was  the  first 
preaching  station.  Thence  Patricius  set  out  to  con- 
vert his  old  master,  but  the  stubborn  pagan  chief  re- 
fused to  receive  him,  according  to  one  story  shutting 
himself  up  in  his  house,  to  which  he  set  fire,  perishing 
in  the  flames  which  his  own  hands  had  kindled.  But 
if  we  accept  this  tradition,  the  question  at  once  arises 
how  we  are  to  reconcile  these  accounts  with  the  Con- 
fession, in  which  he  writes,  "  I  fancied  that  I  heard 
the  voice  of  the  folk  who  were  near  the  wood  of 
Fochlad,  nigh  to  the  western  sea.  And  this  was 
their  cry :  '  We  pray  thee,  holy  youth,  to  come  and 
again  walk  amongst  us  as  before/  "^     If  the  years  of 

1  J.  B.  Bury,"  St.  Patrick.  " 


THE  STORY  OF  PATRICIUS  53 

his  captivity  were  spent  in  Connaught,  then  we  cannot 
be  sure  of  any  detail  of  the  journey  to  which  ref- 
erence has  just  been  made.  Yet  there  were  many 
Christians  in  the  north  who  needed  strengthening  in 
the  faith,  so  that  the  Ulster  mission  may  well  have 
been  undertaken  first  with  a  view  to  afterward  broad- 
ening his  work  to  the  pagan  folk  of  the  western 
shores. 

Very  much  like  the  foregoing  are  all  the  traditions 
of  the  missionary's  long  life  of  service.  That  he 
broke  the  power  of  pagan  worship  in  the  island,  how- 
ever, proves  how  effectively  and  systematically  he 
must  have  laboured.  It  is  true  that  contact  with  the 
Empire,  the  Irish  spirit  of  toleration,  and  the  small 
company  of  believers  already  existing  in  the  island 
had  in  a  measure  prepared  the  way  for  such  a  mission 
as  Patricius  was  undertaking.  Yet  even  so  heathen- 
ism could  not  die  without  a  struggle.  The  secret  of 
the  missionary's  great  success  lies,  doubtless,  in  two 
outstanding  qualities  of  his  character, — his  simple- 
hearted  devotion  to  his  work,  which  was  to  him  a 
labour  of  love,  and  the  fine  tact  which  made  him  so 
thoroughly  adapt  his  methods  to  the  island's  peculiar 
needs,  while  yet  remaining  true  to  his  ideals  of  Chris- 
tian living.  Listen  to  his  own  review  of  his  achieve- 
ments. 

"  The  people  of  Ireland,  who  formerly  had  only  their 
idols  and  pagan  ritual,  not  knowing  the  Master,  have 
now  become  His  children:  the  sons  of  the  Scoti  and 
their  king's  daughters  are  now  become  sons  of  the 
Master  and  handmaidens  of  the  Anointed. 

"  Therefore  I  might  even  leave  them,  to  go  among 
the  Britons,  for  willingly  would  I  see  my  own  kin- 
dred and  my  native  land  again,  or  even  go  so  far  as 


54.         BONDSMAN  AND  EMANCIPATOR 

Gaul  to  visit  my  brothers  and  see  the  face  of  my 
Master's  holy  men.  But  I  am  bound  in  the  spirit  and 
would  be  unfaithful  if  I  went.  Nor  would  I  wil- 
lingly risk  the  fruit  of  all  my  work.  Yet  it  is  not  I 
who  decide,  but  the  Master,  who  bade  me  come  hither 
to  spend  my  whole  life  in  serving,  as  indeed  I  think 
I  shall   ... 

*'  You  know  and  the  Master  knows  how  from  my 
youth  I  have  lived  among  you  in  aspiration  and  truth 
and  with  a  single  heart ;  that  I  have  declared  the  truth 
to  those  among  whom  I  dwell  and  still  declare  it. 
The  Master  knows  that  I  have  deceived  no  man  in 
anything,  nor  ever  shall,  for  His  sake  and  His  peo- 
ple's. Nor  shall  I  ever  arouse  uncharity  in  them  or 
in  any,  lest  His  name  should  be  evil  spoken  of." 

Some  time  during  those  first  years  of  his  mission 
Patricius  would  be  summoned  to  the  court  of  the 
High  King  at  Tara  to  explain  the  nature  of  the  new 
religion  being  taught  in  the  island.  The  king's  in- 
vestigation, however,  would  hardly  be  made  before 
the  missionaries  began  preaching  in  the  sovereign's 
own  domain,  the  central  kingdom  of  Meath,  for  the 
great  chieftain's  overlordship  was  purely  nominal. 
The  meeting  of  King  Loigaire,  son  of  Niall  of  the 
Nine  Hostages,  and  the  then  High  King  of  Ireland, 
with  the  noble  missionary  has  been  most  dramatically 
represented  by  later  writers.  In  its  simplest  form  the 
story  brings  back  Patricius  and  his  little  band  of  help- 
ers to  Tara  from  the  north  to  attend  a  national  fes- 
tival held  in  the  king's  palace  at  a  time  coincident 
with  the  Christian  Easter.  In  accordance  with  royal 
decree  no  fires  are  to  be  lighted  throughout  the  king- 
dom until  the  great  beacon  on  Tara  reddens  with  its 
radiance  the  night  skies.     Patricius,   following  long 


THE  STORY  OF  PATRICIUS  55 

custom,  lights  the  Paschal  torch  on  the  Hill  of  Slane, 
is  summoned  before  the  king,  who  grants  him  per- 
mission to  preach  to  the  assembled  nobles.  Only  one 
convert  is  made,  but  the  preaching  of  Patricius  re- 
sults in  Loigaire's  promising  the  missionaries  a  peace- 
ful continuance  of  their  labours.  However  much  of 
detail  the  dramatic  instinct  of  the  mediaeval  chronicler 
may  have  added  to  the  real  facts,  the  audience 
granted  to  Patricius  must  have  ended  with  very  much 
such  results  as  these,  while  the  time  and  the  manner 
of  the  interview  are  certainly  not  essential.  King 
Loigaire  himself  never  became  a  Christian.  It  was 
in  truth  no  easy  step  for  an  Irish  chieftain  to  take, 
for  the  gentle  art  of  forgiveness  held  no  place  in  Ire- 
land's idea  of  kingly  dignity,  and  though  Niall's  son 
seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  peaceful  intent  whose 
reign  marks  a  prosperous  period  in  Irish  annals,  it  is 
nevertheless  suggestive  that  even  this  sovereign  was 
at  his  own  request  buried  in  full  armour  and  facing 
the  land  of  his  long-time  foe,  the  king  of  Leinster. 

Another  interesting  story  is  told  of  the  work  of 
the  missionaries  in  Meath.  Lomman,  a  co-labourer 
of  Patricius,  was  sent  to  the  Ford  of  the  Alder  on  the 
river  Boyne,  where  dwelt  a  son  of  King  Loigaire  with 
his  British  wife.  The  visit  resulted  in  the  conversion 
of  the  entire  family.  Prince  Fedilmid  entrusted  his 
young  son  to  Lomman  for  instruction  and  later  gave 
his  estate  over  to  the  missionaries  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  Christian  school.  A  brother  of  the  High 
King  also  embraced  the  faith,  and  from  these  two 
notable  conversions  we  may  infer  that  Patricius 
would  gain  a  ready  hearing  for  his  message  among 
the  middle  and  lower  classes. 

When  at  last  Patricius  came  to  the  people  whose 


66         BONDSMAN  AND  EMANCIPATOR 

longing  cry  had  reached  him  over  mountain  and  sea, 
whose  need  at  least  had  brought  him  to  Ireland,  we 
can  imagine  with  what  joy  the  unselfish  missionary 
would  gather  those  first  converts  of  the  west  and  how 
dear  ever  after  they  must  have  been  to  his  great,  pity- 
ing heart.  But  there  is  another  picture  also  which 
we  like  to  remember  of  the  Connaught  mission.  On 
this  wild,  rocky  coast,  which  still  keeps  lonely  watch 
and  ward  over  its  daughter  islands  set  amid  the  toss- 
ing, tumbling  waters  of  the  Atlantic  at  its  feet,  stands 
Crochan  Aigli  or  Croagh  Patrick,  to  whose  solitary 
heights  Patricius  withdrew  for  a  time,  to  find  in  fast- 
ing and  prayer  new  strength  for  his  labours.  Per- 
haps this  mountain  was  the  very  scene  of  those  years 
of  toil  when  the  British  captive  had  first  turned  to  the 
God  of  his  fathers.  If  this  were  so,  what  great 
thoughts  must  have  come  to  Patricius  as  he  looked 
back  over  the  way  in  which  he  had  been  led  by  his 
Heavenly  Father. 

In  these  long  watches,  also,  the  imaginative  Celt 
would  read  the  word  of  God  in  the  face  of  nature. 
The  winds  would  bring  him  messages  of  hope.  The 
storms  which  raged  about  the  rocky  summit  would  be 
to  him  his  own  struggle  with  the  forces  of  darkness 
for  the  souls  of  his  adopted  people,  and  the  sunshine 
which  broke  in  floods  of  golden  light  the  final  victory 
of  the  Christ  in  Ireland.  The  star-sown  heavens 
would  speak  to  him  of  strength  and  peace  and  of  a 
love  that  was  all-embracing.  So  healing  of  soul 
would  come  to  Patricius  in  the  mountain  solitudes, 
and  when  at  last  he  was  ready  to  go  down  to  the  old 
struggle  he  could  see  in  the  slowly-winging  seabirds 
which  haunted  the  lonely  promontory  the  innumerable 
host  of  Ireland's  Christian  warriors,  the  great  souls 


THE  STORY  OF  PATRICIUS  57 

whose  victories  for  truth  and  progress  should  help  to 
enlighten  the  world. 

For  thirty  years  more,  perhaps  for  a  longer  period, 
Patricius  laboured  in  Ireland,  principally  in  the  north- 
ern half  of  the  island,  baptizing  thousands  of  con- 
verts, founding  many  churches,  and  establishing 
schools  for  the  training  of  a  native  clergy.  All  this 
so  successfully  accomplished  proves  that  Patricius  pos- 
sessed not  only  those  qualities  of  gentleness  and  hu- 
mility for  which  his  Confession  shows  him  to  have 
been  so  remarkable,  but  an  indomitable  will  power 
and  a  splendid  resourcefulness  which  enabled  him  to 
cope  successfully  with  the  many  problems  of  his  mis- 
sion. That  he  was  able  to  achieve  so  much  was  in 
the  thought  of  Patricius  entirely  "  the  gift  of  God," 
and  one  of  the  greatest  miracles  of  any  time.  To  us, 
too,  it  is  no  less  a  marvel.  Yet  its  secret  is  not  far 
to  seek.  We  have  it  in  the  words  of  that  quaint 
Scottish  hymn,  perhaps  of  Patricius'  own  composi- 
tion, at  least  expressive  of  the  spirit  in  which  his 
whole  work  was  done,  wherein  is  recognized  the 
preacher's  utter  dependence  upon  his  divine  Master 
for  whose  glory  he  is  labouring: 

"  Christ  in  the  sight 
Of  each  eye  that  shall  seek  me, 
Christ  in  each  ear  that  shall  hear, 
Christ  in  each  mouth  that  shall  speak  me, 

Christ  not  the  less, 

In  each  heart  I  address." 


THE  APOSTLES  OF  GALLOWAY  AND 
STRATHCLYDE 

NiNIAN   AND   KeNTIGERN 

"  For  all  thy  saints,  who  from  their  labours  rest, 
Who  thee  by  faith  before  the  world  confest, 
Thy  name,  O  Jesus,  be  forever  blest. 

"  Thou  wast  their  Rock,  their  Fortress  and  their  Light ; 
Thou,  Lord,  their  Captain  in  the  well-fought  fight; 
Thou,  in  the  darkness  drear,  their  Light  of  light." 

—  William  Walsham  How. 

IN  June,  1910,  there  was  held  in  the  city  of  Edin- 
burgh, Scotland,  a  unique  religious  convention. 
Protestant  bodies  of  every  land  interested  in  the 
question  of  world  evangelization  sent  delegates  to 
this  great  gathering.  From  the  foreign  fields  came 
men  and  women  whose  lives  had  been  spent  in  the 
practical  study  of  the  problems  which  were  discussed 
at  its  meetings.  Commissions  appointed  long  before 
the  date  set  for  convening  brought  in  exhaustive  re- 
ports upon  many  phases  of  missionary  activity, — 
Christian  education,  unity  and  co-operation  on  the 
field,  the  church  and  native  governments,  and  kindred 
subjects.  In  discussing  these  questions  of  common 
interest,  creed  and  nationality  were  forgotten  and 
men  of  the  old  kirk  and  the  free  kirk,  high  church- 
man and  nonconformist.  Englishman  and  American, 

56 


NINIAN  AND  KENTIGERN  59 

Scandinavian  and  German,  met  daily  to  pray  for  the 
speedy  conversion  of  the  awakening  nations  of  the 
non-Christian  world.  Such  was  the  first  World's 
Missionary  Conference,  one  of  the  epoch-making 
events  in  the  history  of  the  Christian  Church. 

Yet  important  as  was  the  Conference  in  itself,  one 
can  not  help  thinking  how  impressive  a  proof  of  the 
value  of  Christian  missions  might  have  been  given 
the  delegates,  had  it  been  possible  for  the  veil  of  the 
ages  to  lift  for  a  moment  revealing  the  Scotland  of 
the  early  years,  the  Scotland  of  a  Celtic  paganism, 
where  a  few  solitary  workers  and  scattered  Christian 
communities  were  endeavouring  to  overthrow  the 
forces  of  heathenism  with  the  Gospel  of  peace  and 
goodwill.  All  that  during  these  fifteen  centuries  God 
has  wrought  in  the  fair  realm  of  Scotland  can  He 
not  repeat  in  China  and  India  and  the  islands  of  the 
sea?  Yesterday  "an  axe  age,  a  spear  age,  a  wolf 
age,  a  war  age,  a  confusion  of  races,  and  a  twilight  of 
time."  To-day  thousands  of  missionary  labourers 
met  for  conference  in  this  same  land,  which  has  be- 
come known  the  world  over  for  the  zeal  of  its  faith 
and  works.  Yesterday  in  all  Europe  a  mere  hand- 
ful of  Christians  and  an  almost  untried  faith.  To- 
day millions  of  followers  of  the  Christ  and  the  rich 
fruitage  of  nearly  two  thousand  years  of  martyrdom 
and  growth  and  conquest.  Surely  when  we  realize 
what  Christ  has  done  for  England  and  Scotland  and 
America  we  cannot  doubt  His  power  to  revolutionize 
the  non-Christian  world  of  to-day,  if  zve  are  faithful 
to  our  trust. 

The  year  410  saw  Britain  left  defenceless  by  the 
withdrawal  of  the  Roman  armies.  To  the  north, 
however,  this  event  would  be  of  little  moment  since 


60  THE  APOSTLES  OF  GALLOWAY 

the  Roman  eagles  had  never  advanced  far  beyond 
the  Clyde  and  the  Forth.  The  mountainous  country 
extending  northward  from  the  Grampians  and  known 
as  Pictland  or  Caledonia  was  the  home  of  a  fierce 
race,  perhaps  pure  Gaelic,  perhaps  Iberian  with  a 
strain  of  Gaelic  blood.  We  know  little  of  their  cus- 
toms, their  language,  or  their  religion  save  that  they 
w-ere  still  pagans.  South  of  the  wall  of  Antoninus, 
which  connected  the  estuaries  of  the  Forth  and  Clyde, 
Roman  civilization  had  left  some  impress,  and  there 
Christianity  had  found  a  foothold.  The  times,  how- 
ever, w-ere  rendered  far  too  troublous  by  almost  con- 
stant warfare  with  the  Picts  of  the  north  and  the  Scots 
of  Ireland,  and  by  the  ravages  of  Saxon  pirates,  to 
permit  the  development  of  a  strong  and  progressive 
church.  Yet  even  in  the  darkness  of  the  falling  night 
here  and  there  a  solitary  lamp  still  shone  forth  with 
a  steady  radiance  to  guide  the  faltering  steps  of  the 
persecuted  Brythons.^  Sometimes,  too,  the  blessed 
light  would  send  its  life-giving  rays  far  out  into  the 
heathen  communities,  bringing  them  gradually  to  a 
renunciation  of  their  old  gods.  One  of  these  centres 
of  light  was  set  amid  the  wilds  of  Galloway,  in  south- 
western Scotland.  The  founder  of  this  Christian 
school  was  a  Briton  named  Ninian,  who  had  studied 
in  Rome  and  had  returned  to  instruct  his  countrymen 
in  the  faith.  Received  by  the  Christians  of  Galloway 
W'ith  great  rejoicing,  he  built  on  the  southern  shore  of 
Wigtow^n  Bay  a  beautiful  new  church  of  white  stone, 
from  its  appearance  known  as  Candida  Casa  or  White 
House.  If  we  may  believe  tradition,  the  school 
which  he  founded  here  w^as  w'ell  and  favourably 
known  even  so  far  as  Ireland.  To-day  all  traces  of 
1  Brython  is,  of  course,  only  another  form  of  Briton. 


NINIAN  AND  KEXTIGERN  61 

this  foundation  have  disappeared.  Only  in  a  cave  in 
the  face  of  a  steep  cHff  near  Whithorn  the  traveller 
may  still  see  quaint  Celtic  crosses,  which  it  is  believed 
the  saint  carved  upon  the  rock  walls  when  he  with- 
drew here  for  meditation  and  prayer/  Ninian,  we  are 
told,  was  a  man  much  given  to  Bible  study,  and  it 
would  be  interesting  to  know  whether  the  young  Pa- 
tricius  ever  found  his  w^ay  to  Candida  Casa  to  gain 
from  his  fellow  countryman  that  love  for  the  word 
of  God  which  is  so  conspicuous  in  the  Confession  of 
Ireland's  great  apostle. 

When  all  is  said,  it  is  a  very  shadowy  figure  that  we 
see  through  the  mists  of  the  years,  and  very  shadowy 
also  is  our  picture  of  the  people  for  whom  he  la- 
boured. His  more  immediate  parish  or  diocese  of 
Galloway  seems  to  have  included  both  Brython  and 
Pict,  of  whom  the  latter  may  have  been  still  wor- 
shippers of  heathen  deities  when  Ninian  came  among 
them.  Even  here  his  work  would  necessitate  a  life 
of  great  hardship  and  self-denial,  for  the  country  was 
at  that  time  still  covered  with  dense  forests  and  in 
parts  was  wild  and  mountainous.  Nevertheless  the 
zeal  of  this  man  of  God  seems  only  to  have  increased 
with  danger  and  difficulty,  and  so  when  the  nearer 
places  had  been  firmly  established  in  the  Christian 
doctrines  he  began  reaching  out  to  the  Pictish  tribes 
which  dwelt  by  the  wall  of  Antoninus  and  were 
known  in  distinction  to  their  northern  neighbours,  the 
Caledonians,  as  the  southern  Picts.  Writing  of  the 
coming  of  Columba  to  lona,  Bede  says,  "  The  south- 
ern Picts  who  dwelt  on  this  side  of  those  mountains 
had  long  before,  as  is  reported,  forsaken  the  errors 
of    idolatry    and    embraced    the   truth,    through    the 

iLang,  "History  of  Scotland." 


62  THE  APOSTLES  OF  GALLOWAY 

preaching  of  Ninias,  a  most  reverend  bishop,  and  a 
holy  man  of  the  British  nation,  who  had  been  regu- 
larly instructed  at  Rome  in  the  faith  and  mysteries 
of  the  truth."  We  would  like  very  much  to  be  able 
to  follow  the  missionary  in  his  preaching  tours  among 
this  half -barbarous  people,  who  were  thus  won  by  the 
spiritual  forces  of  an  Empire  which  had  never  suc- 
ceeded in  gaining  material  dominion  over  them;  but 
we  know  little  beyond  the  statement  of  the  Northum- 
brian historian.  Even  the  date  and  place  of  his  death 
are  unknown,  though  an  early  tradition  takes  him  to 
Ireland,  where  he  is  said  to  have  founded  a  monastery 
at  Cluainconer. 

A  century  and  a  half  had  passed,  a  period  of  storm 
and  stress  in  Scotland,  where  tribe  warred  against 
tribe,  and  the  dread  invader  from  the  forests  and 
morasses  across  the  German  Ocean  pressed  in  larger 
and  larger  numbers  into  the  land  of  their  future  do- 
minion. By  the  middle  of  the  sixth  century  the 
country  was  divided  as  follows.  North  of  the  Gram- 
pians the  Picts  were  consolidated  into  a  single  king- 
dom with  a  capital  near  Inverness.  The  western 
shore,  including  the  present  Argyle  and  Bute  with 
the  adjacent  islands,  was  held  by  Dalriadic  Scots, 
who  after  years  of  predatory  invasion  had  left  their 
Irish  homes  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century  for 
permanent  settlement  in  Scotland.  Reaching  south- 
ward from  Dumbarton  to  the  Derwent  was  the  king- 
dom of  the  Strathclyde  or  Cumbrian  Brythons,  with 
Galloway  largely  Pictish.  The  Anglian  kingdom  of 
Bernicia  extended  northward  as  far  as  Haddington, 
and  was  soon  to  include  Edinburgh.  Of  these  four 
kingdoms,  Dalriada  was  nominally  Christian,  Strath- 


NINIAN  AND  KENTIGERN  63 

clyde  was  partly  pagan  and  partly  Christian,  the  re- 
maining two  were  openly  heathen.  The  second  of 
Scotland's  great  missionaries,  Kentigern  or  Mungo, 
seems  to  have  been  largely  responsible  for  the  final 
overthrow  of  paganism  in  Strathclyde,  as  Columba 
accomplished  the  conversion  of  the  northern  Picts 
and  Aidan  that  of  the  invading  English. 

When  Kentigern  first  comes  upon  the  stage  of 
authentic  history,  we  find  him  establishing  a  monas- 
tery at  Glasghu  or  Glasgow,  of  which  city  he  became 
the  patron  saint.  A  monk  of  Furness  who  wrote  an 
eleventh  century  life  of  the  missionary  says  that  the 
king  of  the  Cumbrian  Brythons  had  convened  a  coun- 
cil of  the  church  of  Ninian's  planting  and  that  the 
Conference  called  Kentigern  to  the  task  of  re-con- 
verting Strathclyde.  He  accepted  the  call  and  was 
ordained  by  a  bishop  from  Ireland,  but  his  work  was 
destined  to  interruption.  After  the  death  of  the 
reigning  prince  there  arose  a  king  who  knew  not  the 
religion  of  Kentigern,  and  very  soon  the  hostility  of 
the  royal  pagan  became  so  bitter  that  the  missionary 
was  forced  to  leave  his  unfinished  task  and  flee  to  his 
countrymen  in  Wales,  among  whom  he  remained 
many  years,  tradition  says  founding  a  school  for 
Christian  workers  on  the  Welsh  Clyde,  where  to-day 
stands  St.  Asaph's. 

When  in  573  Rhydderch  Hael  or  Roderick  the 
Bountiful  succeeded  to  the  British  throne,  Kentigern 
was  recalled  to  Glasgow  and  spent  the  remainder  of 
his  life  teaching  the  gospel  of  the  Christ  to  the  rude 
Brythons  among  whom  he  had  first  laboured.  Per- 
haps on  the  very  site  of  the  present  cathedral  which 
is  named  in  his  honour,  Kentigern  built  a  little  wooden 
church,  around  which  there  grew  up  a  Christian  com- 


"'?•►■ 


64.  THE  APOSTLES  OF  GALLOWAY 

munity,  the  beginning  of  the  future  metropolis. 
Here  Kentigern  preached  the  word  of  God  to  throngs 
of  Christians  and  pagans  and  celebrated  the  sacred 
rites.  Like  Ninian,  the  Apostle  of  Strathclyde  was 
not  content  with  teaching  his  own  people,  but  made 
long  missionary  journeys  to  the  Picts  of  Galloway 
and  the  Caledonians  beyond  the  wall.  Jocelyn  tells 
us  that  he  even  reached  the  Orkneys  and  Iceland,  but 
it  is  hardly  probable  that  he  ever  went  farther  than 
Aberdeenshire.  After  thirty  years  of  untiring  la- 
bour, on  the  thirteenth  of  January,  603,  the  noble 
missionary  passed  to  his  reward,  and  was  buried  in 
the  church  which  he  had  built  at  Glasgow. 


VI 

THE  DOVE  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

COLUMBA  AND  THE  MISSIONARY  INSTITUTE  OF  lONA 

"How  rapid  the  speed  of  my  coracle  ; 
And  its  stern  turned  upon  Derry  ; 
I  grieve  at  my  errand  o'er  the  noble  sea, 
Travelling  to  Alba  of  the  ravens. 

•  •  •  •  • 

My  vision  o'er  the  brine  I  stretch 
From  the  ample  oaken  planks  ; 
Large  is  the  tear  of  my  soft  grey  eye, 
When  I  look  back  upon  Erin." 

— Columba,  "  The  Song  of  Farewell." 

"  The  best  advice  in  the  presence  of  God 
To  me  has  been  vouchesafed." 

— ' '  Columkille  fecit. " 

CARLYLE  once  compared  the  great  German 
reformer,  Martin  Luther,  to  an  Alpine  moun- 
tain, "  unsubduable  granite,  piercing  far  and 
wide  into  the  Heavens;  yet  in  the  clefts  of  it  foun- 
tains, green,  beautiful  valleys  with  flowers!"  There 
is  a  figure  like  to  that  in  Europe's  early  missionary 
annals,  a  mountain  peak  looming  grand  and  beautiful 
above  the  rugged  foothills,  beaten  by  winter  tempest, 
bathed  in  summer  sunlight,  but  alike  unmoved,  for- 
ever inspired  and  inspiring.  In  Columba  or  Colum- 
kille, the  Irish  prince  and  apostle  of  northern  Scot- 
land, the  founder  of  lona,  that  "  lamp  of  Christ " 

69 


66  THE  DOVE  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

whose  radiance  cleft  the  darkness  of  mediaeval  Europe 
and  still  shines  down  the  ages ;  the  friend  and  political 
adviser  of  kings;  the  daring  explorer,  whose  frail 
skiff  penetrated  unsailed  seas,  carried  thither  by  love 
for  the  Christ;  in  Columba,  the  seer  and  prophet,  a 
mystic  inspired  by  visions  of  divine  beauty,  one  is 
given  to  see  also  the  flowers  of  a  rare  tenderness 
and  love  like  the  Master's  own.  Columba  of  the 
Churches,  one  of  the  greatest  names  in  that  long  list 
of  Celtic  missionaries  whose  work  was  so  large  a  part 
of  the  evangelization  of  Europe,  is  a  "  Spiritual  Hero 
and  Prophet,"  one  "  for  whom  these  centuries  and 
many  that  are  to  come  yet,  will  be  thankful  to 
Heaven." 

The  sixth  century  marked  the  beginning  of  what 
has  been  termed  Ireland's  Golden  Age.^  Before  the 
new  century  had  dawned  the  pagan  temples  were  in 
ruins  and  the  pagan  faith  was  dead,  except  as  it  lived 
on  in  the  folklore  of  an  imaginative  people.  On  hill- 
slope  and  in  secluded  vale  quaint  round  churches  and 
little  beehive-shaped  cells  revealed  the  place  where  the 
Gospel  of  God's  grace  was  proclaimed  or  the  bless- 
ings of  Christian  education  were  being  offered  to 
hungering  souls.  Toward  the  Isle  of  Saints  in  the 
years  before  the  Viking  overran  the  land,  kings  and 
scholars  in  all  storm-tossed  Europe  turned  as  to  the 
Pole  Star  of  their  hopes.^  For  Ireland,  set  in  the 
far  west  where  its  remoteness  saved  it  from  the  pagan 
hordes  threatening  to  engulf  the  Christianity  of  the 

1  Such  terms  as  Golden  Age,  we  must  remember,  are  always 
used  in  a  comparative  sense.  Christian  Ireland  followed  the 
age  of  pagan  sacrifice,  with  its  horrors. 

2  This  period  of  peace  and  prosperity  lasted  until  the  ninth 
century,  the  f.rst  incursion  of  the  Northmen  occurring  in  795. 


COLUMBA  AND  MISSIONARY  INSTITUTE     67 

Continent,  offered  in  its  many  schools  a  haven  of 
peace  for  the  scholar  and  the  saint,  while  it  was  from 
these  same  monastic  centres  that  missionary  monks, 
moved  by  a  great  compassion  for  benighted  souls  and 
an  ardent  zeal  for  the  spread  of  the  Kingdom,  jour- 
neyed on  foot  over  Europe,  bringing  many  a  still 
heathen  folk  into  the  fold  of  the  Christ. 

Sixty  years  after  the  death  of  Patricius,  before  the 
period  just  mentioned  had  fairly  begun,  and  while 
the  new  faith  was  still  striving  for  mastery  with  the 
old,  there  was  born  at  Gartan  in  that  part  of  Ulster 
which  now  forms  the  county  of  Donegal,  a  great- 
grandson  of  Niall  of  the  Nine  Hostages,  who  in  turn 
was  to  carry  the  good  news  of  salvation  to  the  very 
land  from  which,  we  have  reason  to  believe,  the 
Ulster  chief  had  brought  the  Apostle  of  Ireland  so 
many  years  before.  This  was  Columba,  the  founder 
of  the  most  important  missionary  institute  of  the 
early  church.  The  lad's  mother  was  the  daughter  of 
a  Leinster  chief  and  must  have  been  a  most  devout 
woman,  gifted  with  great  spiritual  insight  for  the  time 
in  which  she  lived.  Even  the  legends  which  at  a  very 
early  period  gathered  about  her  name  and  that  of  her 
princely  son  are  of  a  strange,  mystic  beauty  that  gives 
us  at  least  a  hint  of  her  real  character.  Such  is  the 
dream  in  which  the  greatness  of  Columba  was  revealed 
to  the  future  mother.  It  is  told  that  an  angel  came 
to  Aithne,  bearing  in  his  hands  a  mantle  of  so  delicate 
a  texture  that  it  seemed  woven  of  flowers  and  rain- 
bows. When  he  had  shown  the  princess  this  wonder- 
ful garment,  he  flung  it  upward  into  the  clear  ether, 
where  it  floated  far  and  wide  over  mountain  peak 
and  hidden  vale  until  it  covered  the  whole  of  the 
British  Isles,  a  symbol  of  the  manner  in  which  the 


68  THE  DOVE  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

good  saint's  labours  should  shadow  protectingly  this 
far-off  corner  of  Europe. 

The  influences  which  surrounded  the  little  lad  must 
have  been  of  a  conflicting  nature.  In  his  father's 
banqueting-hall  he  saw  the  proudest  chieftains  of  a 
proud  and  warlike  people.  Hero  tales  from  the  past 
were  chanted  by  the  bards  in  the  long  winter  evenings, 
and  the  pride  of  ancestry  and  the  thought  of  the 
honour  and  power  his  own  princely  hand  might  win 
when  he  had  grown  to  manhood  would  appeal  in- 
tensely to  the  descendant  of  Ireland's  first  overlord. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  teaching  of  his  gentle  mother 
would  be  strengthened  by  Columba's  own  love  of 
beauty,  whether  material  or  spiritual,  and  by  the  new 
conceptions  of  life  that  were  daily  becoming  stronger 
through  the  monastic  schools  at  this  time  springing 
up  all  over  the  land  and  attracting  many  of  noble  birth 
to  a  life  of  intellectual  and  religious  pursuits.  Still 
another  fact  of  Columba's  childhood  influenced  him 
in  the  direction  of  a  religious  life.  It  had  become  a 
custom  to  send  boys  of  royal  parentage  to  the  priest- 
hood for  training,  and  Adamnan  mentions  one 
Cruithnechan  as  Columba's  foster-father.  At  some 
time  the  young  prince  studied  poet-lore  under  a  bard 
of  his  father's  court,  a  fact  which  perhaps  accounts 
for  his  later  spirited  defence  of  that  ancient  order. 

The  monastery  of  Clonard,  where  Columba  pur- 
sued his  education  under  Finnian  the  Wise,  one  of  the 
foremost  teachers  of  the  day,  was  situated  on  the  lofty 
shore  of  the  river  Boyne,  and  consisted  of  a  central 
chapel  and  library  of  unmortared  stone,  with  domed 
roof,  and  the  separate  cells  of  the  students,  which 
were  built  in  a  circle  about  it.  Here,  looking  out 
upon  a  landscape  of  great  natural  beauty,  the  lad  pur- 


COLUMBA  AND  MISSIONARY  INSTITUTE     69 

sued  his  study  of  the  sacred  Scriptures,  and  perhaps 
began  his  work  as  a  transcriber,  working  into  the  in- 
tricate patterns  of  geometric  line  and  fanciful  scroll 
with  which  he  illuminated  his  manuscripts  a  grace 
that  the  soft  evening  light  upon  the  peaceful  vale  of 
the  Boyne  or  the  delicate  beauty  of  the  sunrise  had 
breathed  into  his  responsive  soul.  During  the  next 
years  his  missionary  spirit  was  made  apparent  in  the 
founding  of  Christian  schools,  the  most  important  of 
which  were  the  monasteries  of  Derry  and  Durrow. 

About  the  year  563,  while  Justinian  was  reigning 
over  old  and  new  Rome  and  the  shadow  of  heathen 
ignorance  still  rested  upon  the .  forests  of  Germany, 
while  France  was  seething  in  a  turmoil  of  barbaric 
warfare  and  in  the  nearer  places  ^lla  was  beginning 
the  long  conquest  of  Bernicia,  while  Kentigern  was 
still  an  exile  in  Wales  and  the  light  of  Christianity 
was  burning  low  in  darkened  Scotland,  Columba  with 
twelve  companions  left  Ireland  for  the  highlands  of 
western  Alba,  where  he  had  resolved  to  spend  his  life 
in  winning  the  northern  Picts  to  the  faith  of  his 
Master. 

Two  reasons  have  been  assigned  by  the  old  writers 
for  this  sudden  decision  to  undertake  foreign  mis- 
sionary service,  neither  of  them  quite  what  a  study 
of  the  after  life  of  this  great  missionary  would  lead 
us  to  expect.  One  story  shows  Columba  sheltering  a 
murderer  from  the  king's  court,  and  on  the  right  of 
sanctuary  being  violated,  gathering  his  kinsfolk,  the 
Clan  Neill,  to  a  battle  at  Culdreivne,  where  the  army 
of  the  king's  son  was  completely  routed  by  the  men 
of  the  north.  Columba,  becoming  remorseful  when 
his  hasty  temper  had  had  time  to  cool,  made  a  vow 
to  win  as  many  converts  from  heathenism  as  there 


70  THE  DOVE  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

had  been  warriors  slain  in  the  unjust  battle  for  which 
he  was  responsible.  In  the  second  story  it  was  Co- 
lumba's  love  for  rare  books  which  sent  him  into  exile. 
The  Abbot  of  Moville  possessed  a  valuable  Psalter 
which  the  artist-monk  greatly  desired  to  copy.  Upon 
Finnian's  refusal  Columba  obtained  the  transcription 
by  stealth,  and  the  question  was  referred  to  Tara's 
king,  whose  decision  led  to  battle  between  the  clans 
to  which  Finnian  and  the  future  Apostle  of  the  Picts 
belonged. 

It  may  well  be  that  one  of  these  stories  is  true. 
Nevertheless  we  shall  make  a  grievous  mistake  if  we 
judge  the  Celt  of  the  sixth  century  by  to-day's  stand- 
ards. Columba  was,  we  know;  a  proud  scion  of  Ire- 
land's ruling  family,  dowered  with  all  the  wilfulness 
of  an  imperious  race,  a  Gael  of  the  Gaels  in  the  quick 
play  of  emotion,  which  made  him  at  once  tender  as 
a  child  and  stern  as  a  Hebrew  prophet.  Such  a  char- 
acter chastened  by  sorrow  would  inevitably  accom- 
plish great  things  for  the  Master.  In  after  years 
Columba  returned  to  Ireland  more  than  once  for  the 
superintendence  of  his  earlier  missionary  work,  and 
was  everywhere  honoured  and  influential,  while  to  the 
missionary  institute  which  he  founded  on  lona  and 
moulded  into  the  image  of  his  own  soul  by  far  the 
greater  part  of  England  and  Scotland  owes  its  con- 
version. 

In  a  frail  boat  fashioned  of  skins  and  withes  from 
the  tough  osier,  in  size  more  fit  for  navigation  in  some 
sheltered  fiord  than  for  breasting  the  stormy  surges 
by  which  Alba's  coast  has  been  torn  into  a  thousand 
rocky  islands  and  promontories,  Columba  with  his 
few  helpers  sailed  from  Ireland  on  his  great  mission 
to   the   northern    Picts.     To   this    home-loving   Gael 


COLUMBA  AND  MISSIONARY  INSTITUTE     71 

knowing  so  little  of  what  lay  beyond  the  grey,  dreary 
expanse  of  waters,  with  little  hope  of  ever  again  see- 
ing the  faithful  flock  at  Derry  from  whom  he  had 
just  parted,  there  must  have  come  sore  pangs  of  bit- 
ter longing  as  he  watched  the  familiar  shores  fall 
farther  and  farther  back  on  the  horizon  line.  Never- 
theless, having  once  set  his  hand  to  the  plow,  there 
was  to  be  no  turning  back  for  Columba.  When  from 
Colonsay's  highest  peak,  he  scanned  the  distant  bil- 
lows for  trace  of  the  homeland,  and  still  beheld  the 
low  bank  of  misty  blue  that  was  Ireland,  the  intrepid 
missionary  sailed  again  resolutely  northward  to  the 
island  of  lona,  upon  which  his  memory  was  to  rest 
in  all  after  ages  like  a  benediction. 

The  little  bay  where  Columba  and  his  followers 
first  landed  in  lona  is  still  known  as  Port-na-Churraich, 
or  the  Haven  of  the  Coracle,  and  bits  of  emerald- 
coloured  rock  ^  strewn  along  its  shore  the  inhabitants 
superstitiously  regard  as  pieces  of  the  huge  boulder 
upon  which  the  missionaries  stepped  from  their  rude 
boat.  Northward  beyond  the  bay  the  island  stretches 
for  nearly  three  miles,  a  table-land  of  barren  gneiss 
rock,  broken  by  dips  of  fertile  valley,  and  in  the 
northeast  rising  to  the  steep  hill  of  Dun-i.  From  the 
kelp-covered  rocks  of  its  western  shore  to  the  white 
sand  dunes  that  face  the  narrow  strait  dividing  the 
island  from  Mull,  the  cry  of  the  curlew  is  still  borne 
on  the  winds  and  about  the  ruins  of  long  past  years 
the  doves  croon  as  gently  as  when  Columkille,  the 
Dove  of  the  Churches,  gave  them  his  daily  blessing. 
As  grand,  too,  in  Columba's  time  must  have  been  the 

'  Jade.  Writing  concerning  a  visit  to  lona  in  1810,  Sir  Walter 
Scott  mentions  carrying  away  one  of  these  pebbles,  and  having 
it  set  in  a  brooch,  which  he  presented  to  Miss  Joanna  Baillie. 


72  THE  DOVE  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

view  eastward,  where  the  artist-missionary  would 
look  out  "  across  the  turbulent  water  of  lona  Sound, 
dotted  with  black  rocks  and  little  islets  around  which 
the  surf  breaks  in  broad  white  fringes.  Afar  off  one 
may  descry  the  lofty  dome  of  Ben  More  towering 
into  the  clouds  from  the  Isle  of  Mull,  and  in  the  op- 
posite direction  the  '  Coolin  Hills  of  Skye '  rise 
ethereal  among  the  ever-present  clouds,  which  drift 
majestically  by,  now  veiling,  now  revealing,  their 
purple,  craggy  peaks."  ^ 

Wearied  by  their  efforts  to  escape  the  eddies  and 
whirlpools   which   surround   the   island,   the  mission- 
aries drew  their  coracle  far  up  on  the  sand,  and  as  soon 
as  they  had  satisfied  themselves  that  all  vestige  of  the 
homeland  was  at  last  gone  from  the  horizon,  buried 
their  boat  in  the  sand  of  the  shore  and  set  about  build- 
ing rude  homes  and  a  little  church  in  which  to  wor- 
ship God  on  the  spot  where,  of  old,  Druid  priests  had 
performed  their  mystic  rites.     Almost  their  first  care 
was  to  begin  the  cultivation  of  the  few  acres  of  til- 
lable land  which  the  island  afforded,  for  beside  the 
fact  that  they  were  unwilling  to  be  dependent  upon 
the  people  for  whom  they  laboured,  they  wished  to 
show  this  turbulent  folk  the  beauty  of  ordered  and 
industrious  living,  and  not  less  impressive  than  Co- 
lumba's  eloquent  pleadings  must  have  been  the  prac- 
tical sermons  which  this  little  company  of  Christian 
labourers   preached   so   silently   as   they   sowed   and 
reaped   and   filled   their   leisure   moments   with   con- 
tented study. 

Fortified  by  its  very  isolation,  this  little  settlement 
of  Celtic  Christians  soon  became  a  centre  of  learning 
and  missionary  interest  for  all  the  northwestern  por- 

1  Butler,  "  Scotland's  Ruined  Abbeys." 


COLUMBA  AND  MISSIONARY  INSTITUTE     73 

tion  of  Europe.     The  number  of  monks  increased  to 
a  hundred  and  fifty.     The  buildings,  still  of  the  sim- 
plest sort,  were  surrounded  by  a  wall  of  earth,  though 
by  far  its  greatest  defence  was  its  simple,  practical 
faith.     Again  and  again  the  fierce  warrior  plunder- 
ing these   coasts   spared   lona   because   of   the   self- 
denying  lives  which  had  made  the  bleak,  lonely  island 
hallowed  ground.     For  centuries  after  Columba's  day 
men  came  from  far  to  the  great  school  which  he  had 
founded,  and  kings  who  longed  for  rest  after  "  life's 
fitful  fever  "  were  brought  hither  for  peaceful  burial. 
But  Columba  had  not  come  to  Scotland  simply  to 
found  a  Christian  college.     lona  was  to  be  above  all 
a   missionary    centre,    from    which    trained   workers 
should  go  out  to  convert  not  only  the  Picts  and  the 
Saxons  of  Britain,  but  large  parts  of  the  Continent 
as  well.     Hardly  were  the  first  rude  cells  erected  and 
the  land  made  to  yield  a  sustenance  when  Columba, 
perhaps  accompanied  by  one  or  two  monks,  set  out  on 
the  difficult  journey  of  one  hundred  and  fifty  miles 
to  the  capital  of  the  Caledonian  kingdom.     Doubtless 
Columba  had  already  begun  preaching  the  word  of 
God  to  his  countrymen,  the  Scots  of  the  neighbouring 
coast,  but  this  was  his  first  extensive  missionary  tour. 
By  dangerous  sea-channels  and  steep  mountain  passes 
the  undaunted  missionary  traversed  Appin,  Lochaber, 
and  Glengarry,  and,  skirting  the  north  shore  of  Lake 
Ness,  arrived  before  the  stockaded  stronghold  where 
was  the  royal  residence  of  Brude,  King  of  the  Picts. 
Adamnan  says  that  the  pagan  monarch  at  first  refused 
to  admit  them,  whereupon  these  determined  men  be- 
gan chanting  the  vesper  Psalms  and  the  voice  of  Co- 
lumba became  like  the  roar  of  thunder  in  the  moun- 
tains.    Still  the  king,  warned  by  his  Druids,  hesitated 


74  THE  DOVE  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

until  the  good  monk,  by  tracing  the  sign  of  the  cross 
upon  the  gates,  caused  them  to  fall  back,  and  thus 
won  the  prince  to  his  cause.  We  of  to-day  read  into 
this  na'ive  story  a  deeper  meaning  than  Adamnan 
probably  intended  to  convey.  The  gates  of  this 
Highland  kingdom  opening  before  the  simple  preach- 
ing of  the  Cross  to  admit  the  Christ  through  His 
faithful  servant,  is  a  true  picture  of  Columba's  v^on- 
derful  achievements  in  northern  Alba. 

The  miraculous  is  all  too  evident  in  the  narratives 
that  have  come  down  to  us  of  the  saint's  life  and 
work.  But,  though  the  great  Celt  was  in  all  proba- 
bility a  mystic,  given  to  visions  and  living  in  closer 
touch  with  the  unseen  world  than  the  practical  Anglo- 
Saxon  of  our  time  can  appreciate,  yet,  as  some  one 
has  well  said,  Columba's  own  Confession,  if  we  pos- 
sessed such  a  document,  would  doubtless  be  as  force- 
ful a  narrative  of  missionary  effort  and  missionary 
accomplishment  as  the  account  left  us  by  the  simple- 
hearted  Patricius.  We  wish  indeed  that  the  Apostle 
of  Caledonia  had  cared  to  write  the  story  of  his  great 
work.  What  a  record  we  should  have  then  of  that 
far-off  time!  He  would  tell  us  how  for  more  than 
three  and  thirty  years  the  Picts  and  Scots  rejoiced  in 
his  personal  ministrations;  how  as  one  of  princely 
race  he  gained  royal  converts  among  the  tribes  which 
he  visited;  how  he  won  clachan  after  clachan  to  the 
Christ  and  planted  industrial  schools  in  every  part  of 
northern  Scotland ;  how  he  met  and  overcame  the  hos- 
tility of  the  Druids;  how  he  trained  younger  men 
from  the  new  converts  to  go  back  and  tell  the  story 
of  Jesus  Christ  to  their  own  people;  finally,  how  he 
developed  a  system  of  organization  by  which  the 
work  throughout   Scotland   was  directed   from   lona 


ANCIENT  CELTIC   CROSS,    lONA 


COLUMBA  AND  MISSIONARY  INSTITUTE     75 

and  went  on  unhindered  when  the  founder  was  gone. 

Columba  was  a  man  in  middle  life  when  he  went  to 
Scotland.  Tall,  of  commanding  presence  and  un- 
usual eloquence,  he  must  have  been  singularly  fitted 
for  his  missionary  labours.  True  Celt  that  he  was, 
he  loved  meditation  and  solitude,  and  often  withdrew 
to  a  neighbouring  island,  "  pleading  earnestly  for 
God's  blessing  on  the  great  work  in  which  he  was 
engaged."  Oppression  and  injustice  roused  his  in- 
dignation as  naught  else  could,  and  many  a  serf 
owed  his  freedom  to  Columba.  Not  less  great  was 
his  tenderness  toward  the  animal  world,  and  in  his 
sympathy  with  his  speechless  brothers  of  lona,  bird 
and  animal,  he  almost  rivalled  the  Assisan  saint. 

The  last  hours  of  the  apostle  were  full  of  dignity 
and  of  thought  for  the  comfort  of  others.  Once 
more  he  climbed  the  little  hill  behind  the  monastery 
and,  looking  down  upon  the  child  of  his  care,  gave 
it  his  blessing.  When  he  had  visited  the  harvesters 
and  had  given  thanks  for  the  rich  ingathering  of  the 
early  crops,  he  returned  to  his  study  and  tried  to 
work  upon  a  transcription  of  the  Psalter,  but  his 
hand  was  weary  and  at  the  words,  "  They  that  seek 
the  Lord  shall  not  want  any  good  thing,"  he  laid 
down  the  pen,  saying,  "  What  follows  let  Baithene 
write."  He  died  that  night  peacefully  before  the 
altar  whither  he  had  gone  for  the  midnight  service, 
and  a  great  and  good  man  had  entered  into  rest. 

There  remains  in  Zona  no  trace  of  Columba's 
monastery.  A  church^  and  other  monastic  ruins  now 
standing  on  the  eastern  slopes  date  from  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries,  and  only  a  few  Celtic  crosses 
and  the  graves  of  the  great  who  were  brought  hither 
^The  cathedral  church  of  St.  Mary,  now  restored. 


76  THE  DOVE  OF  THE  CHURCHES 

for  burial  remain  of  that  grander  and  earlier  age. 
Even  these  do  not  reach  to  Columba's  time.  But 
back  through  the  centuries  the  mind  wanders  at  will 
and  sees  again  the  old  lona  which  lighted  pagan  Scot- 
land, and  longs  to  paint  the  picture  of  that  wonderful 
time.  Sometime  perhaps  the  true  story  of  the  island 
will  be  written.  "  It  will  tell  what  this  '  little  lamp 
of  Christ '  was  to  pagan  Europe;  what  incense  of  tes- 
timony it  flung  upon  the  winds;  what  saints  and 
heroes  went  out  of  it;  how  the  dust  of  kings  and 
princes  was  brought  there  to  mingle  with  its  sands; 
how  the  noble  and  the  ignoble  came  to  it  across  long 
seas  and  perilous  countries.  It  will  tell,  too,  how  the 
Danes  despoiled  the  Isles  of  the  West,  and  left  words 
and  imageries  so  alive  to-day  that  the  listener  in  the 
mind  may  hear  the  cries  of  the  viking  above  the  voice 
of  the  Gael  and  the  more  ancient  tongue  of  the  Pict. 
It  will  tell,  too,  how  the  nettle  came  to  shed  its  snow 
above  kings'  heads,  and  the  thistle  to  wave  where 
bishops'  mitres  stood;  how  a  simple  people  out  of  the 
hills  and  moors,  remembering  ancient  wisdom  or 
blindly  cherishing  forgotten  symbols,  sought  here  the 
Fount  of  Youth;  and  how  slowly  a  long  sleep  fell 
upon  the  island,  and  only  the  grasses  shaken  in  the 
wind,  and  the  wind  itself,  and  the  broken  shadows  of 
dreams  in  the  minds  of  the  old  held  the  secret  of 
lona."  ^ 

The  "  secret  of  lona,"  the  wonderful  secret  of  the 
Isle  of  Saints,  is  not  buried  in  the  graves  of  Columba  ^ 

1  Fiona  Macleod,  "lona." 

2  Some  years  after  his  death  Columba's  body  was  carried  to 
Ireland,  where  it  rested  with  those  of  Patrick  and  Bridget  in 
the  church  at  Down  until  the  building  was  burned  by  Lord 
Gray  in  the  reign  of  Henry  VIII. 


COLUMBA  AND  MISSIONARY  INSTITUTE     77 

and  his  followers,  nor  whispered  by  the  sobbing  sea- 
waves  to  the  lonely  strand  of  an  island  among  the 
Hebrides.  It  was  too  mighty  a  secret  for  lona  to 
hold.  For  these  few  barren  acres  became  hallowed 
ground  only  because  there  once  more  in  far-off  ages 
the  spirit  of  the  Christ  was  made  a  real  and  vital  fact 
by  men  who  lived  not  unto  themselves,  but  unto  those 
for  whom  the  Master  died.  To-day  lona's  secret 
may  be  read  in  the  cities  of  the  Orient  and  the  humble 
villages  of  the  Dark  Continent  or  on  the  islands  of 
the  sea.  Wherever  His  servants  serve  Him  by  minis- 
tering to  needy  and  suffering  souls,  there  is  "  the 
secret  of  lona." 


VII 
A  VOICE  FROM  THE  DESERT ' 

Severinus,  Hermit-Missionary 

Lead  me,  yea,  lead  me  deeper  into  life — 
This  suffering,  human  life  wherein  Thou  liv'st 
And  breath'st  still,  and  hold'st  Thy  way  divine, 
'Tis  here,  O  pitying  Christ,  where  Thee  I  seek, 
Here  where  the  strife  is  fiercest :  where  the  sun 
Beats  down  upon  the  highway  thronged  with  men, 
And  in  the  raging  mart.     Oh!  deeper  lead 
My  soul  into  the  living  world  of  souls 
"Where  Thou  dost  move." 

— Richard  Watson  Gilder. 


T 


I  HE  tawny  sands  of  the  desert  shone  in  the 
slant  rays  of  the  setting  sun  like  a  sea  of 
molten  gold.  Save  for  a  group  of  rock-hewn 
tombs  and  a  distant  island  of  palms,  the  burnished 
billows  stretched  away  unbroken  to  the  meeting-place 
of  sand  and  sky,  while  the  dull,  weary  heat  of  the 
tropic  summer  seemed  hardly  more  oppressive  than 
the  deep  silence  of  the  centuries  resting  upon  the 
ancient  sepulchres  and  the  lifeless  reaches  of  the 
desert.  In  the  shadow  of  one  of  these  tombs  a  man 
apparently  in  middle  life  was  pacing  slowly  to  and  fro. 
He  wore  a  linen  tunic,  over  which  was  thrown  a  cloak 
of  white  goatskin,  and  in  his  hand  held  a  parchment 
roll,  from  which  his  troubled  gaze  often  wandered  out 

^See  Appendix  I,  Note  2. 

78 


SEVERINUS,  HERMIT-MISSIONARY       79 

over  the  expanse  of  the  desert  as  if  seeking  help  from 
some  unknown  source.  After  the  fashion  of  one  whose 
soHtary  life  keeps  him  apart  from  his  fellows,  now 
and  again  the  anchorite  fell  into  broken  musings 
which  revealed  the  struggle  going  on  in  the  soul  of 
the  erstwhile  peaceful  hermit. 

"  Came  I  not  hither  to  escape  the  temptations  of 
the  world  and  to  find  in  fasting  and  prayer  a  deeper 
vision  of  the  God  whom  they  scorn  in  the  market- 
place and  the  palace?  And  was  not  yonder  desert 
teaching  me  the  way  to  peace?  Why  have  I  so  soon 
lost  the  vision?  .  .  .  Can  a  tale  of  wretched,  bar- 
barous peoples  who  care  little  for  the  mysteries  of 
life  send  from  me  the  calm  that  I  have  been  years  in 
gaining?  .  .  .  Have  I  struggled  in  vain  these  many 
years  and  in  vain  subdued  every  longing  for  com- 
panionship and  the  delights  of  the  world?  Must  I 
fight  the  battle  for  peace  over  again?  Was  I  not 
right  in  withdrawing  to  a  life  of  solitude  here,  for 
even  so  have  the  saints  done  since  Anthony's  time, 
and  our  Lord  Himself  led  His  disciples  to  a  lonely 
mountain  top  to  be  transfigured  before  them?  .  .  . 
No,  no,  the  man  who  sought  me  in  the  desert  for  my 
blessing  and  brought  me  this  tale  of  suffering  shall 
only  make  my  strength  the  greater  by  showing  me  the 
blessings  Jehovah  gives  to  those  who  seek  Him  apart 
from  the  strife  of  the  world." 

Once  more  the  hermit  raised  his  parchment  roll 
and  while  swiftly  the  sun  sank  below  the  horizon  and 
the  cool  of  the  evening  crept  over  the  burning  sands 
he  read  again  the  gospel  story  of  which  he  had  been 
thinking.  The  darkness  settled  like  a  transparent 
cloud  over  the  plain,  and  the  myriad  shining  lights  of 
the  clear  heavens  shone  down  upon  him  in  peace,  but 


80  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  DESERT 

the  anchorite  was  no  longer  alone,  for  One  walked 
with  him  in  the  darkness  and  recalled  to  his  remem- 
brance the  many  deeds  of  mercy  and  of  love  which 
for  all  time  rest  like  a  benediction  upon  the  villages 
and  highways  of  Palestine.  From  the  mountain 
heights  to  the  valley  of  service,  thus  had  the  Master 
led  His  disciples,  and  out  into  all  the  world  they  had 
gone,  telling  over  and  over  again  the  story  of  His 
life,  and  everywhere  relieving  pain  and  distress. 

"  Have  I  not  taught  thee  of  Myself  that  thou 
mightest  teach  others  ?  "  The  voice  was  as  clear  and 
the  presence  as  real  to  Severinus  as  if  he  had  walked 
in  Galilee  with  the  Master. 

And  the  humbled  disciple  made  answer, 

"  Whithersoever  Thou  commandest  I  will  go." 

•  •••••••• 

Attila,  called  for  the  utter  desolation  that  he  left 
wherever  his  armies  marched  "  the  Scourge  of  God  "; 
Attila,  leader  of  the  most  savage  warriors  that  ever 
overran  Europe;  Attila  the  Hun  was  dead,  and  al- 
ready his  empire  was  being  separated  into  war- 
ring factions.  Throughout  Gaul  and  Germany  men 
breathed  more  freely  when  the  rumour  of  his  death 
became  accepted  fact,  but  the  cities  that  lay  in  black- 
ened ruins  and  the  fields  and  villages  but  now  so 
prosperous  which  his  terrible  hordes  had  laid  waste, 
still  remained  to  tell  the  awful  story  of  disaster.  The 
provinces  of  the  Roman  frontier  had  suffered  too 
much  to  recover  immediately,  especially  Rhsetia  and 
Noricum.  When  the  great  Hun  had  returned  east- 
ward after  the  battle  of  Chalons,  Goths  and  Germans 
roamed  and  fought  and  pillaged  in  these  border  lands 
and  safety  and  peace  were  nowhere  to  be  enjoyed. 
Small  wonder,  then,  that,  like  men  of  a  later  day, 


SEVERINUS,  HERMIT-MISSIONARY       81 

the  newly  converted  inhabitants  of  these  provinces 
came  to  beheve  that  Christ  and  His  saints  were  asleep 
and,  hastening  to  the  churches  to  pray,  ended  by 
offering  sacrifices  to  their  old  gods.  In  the  midst  of 
this  desolation  one  man's  life  stands  out  in  striking 
contrast  to  the  wretched  beings  about  him.  By  the 
gates  of  Faviana^  he  had  built  him  a  humble  cell, 
and  there  day  after  day  he  preached  a  healing  gospel, 
in  which  hope  and  duty  were  strangely  mingled.  To 
no  one  did  he  reveal  his  race  or  early  home  or  whence 
he  had  come  to  minister  to  them  in  their  distress. 
Yet  all  men  believed  in  him  for  the  beautiful  help- 
fulness of  his  spirit  and  the  uprightness  of  his  life, 
and  his  fame  soon  spread  to  distant  places.  Even  the 
enemies  of  the  people  among  whom  he  dwelt  were 
awed  by  his  presence  and  feared  his  righteous  wrath. 
Called  by  the  besieged  cities  of  Noricum  to  their  aid, 
he  hastened  to  them  on  foot,  and  proved  himself  their 
friend  by  his  words  of  encouragement  and  by  the 
practical  relief  which  he  brought.  In  heat  and  cold, 
in  storm  and  sunshine,  he  moved  among  them,  bring- 
ing order  out  of  chaos  in  their  cities,  urging  the  ran- 
som of  captives,  relieving  distress  by  systematic  alms- 
giving, and  above  all  revealing  in  his  life  and  in  his 
teaching  a  faith  which  all  were  forced  to  acknowledge 
their  fathers'  gods  could  never  have  inspired.  When 
the  enemy  threatened  their  cities,  they  besought  him 
to  come  that  his  holy  presence  might  restrain  the  fury 
of  the  foe  and  save  them  from  at  least  the  worst  hor- 
rors of  war. 

Once  when  the  enemy  had  fallen  upon  the  fields  of 
grain  and  plundered  all  the  surrounding  territory  and 
taken  away  the   inhabitants   of   the  nearby  villages, 
1  Vienna. 


82  A  VOICE  FROM  THE  DESERT 

Severinus  approached  the  governor  of  the  garrison, 
begging  him  to  pursue  and  punish  these  marauders. 
The  Roman  official  returned  victorious  and  at  once 
sent  his  prisoners  to  the  missionary.  No  sooner  were 
these  wretched  men  brought  into  the  saint's  presence 
than  he  commanded  his  attendants  to  break  off  their 
fetters  and  then  with  words  of  warning  to  sin  no 
more  against  the  followers  of  his  Lord  bade  the  cap- 
tives return  to  their  own  people.  And  the  stern  bar- 
barian leader  whom  many  battles  had  not  terrified, 
who  never  had  himself  shown  pity,  stood  before  the 
Apostle  of  Noricum  trembling  and  afraid  at  this  un- 
merited mercy. 

For  many  years  the  unknown  missionary  laboured 
thus  among  a  suffering  people.  When  at  last  he 
knew  the  day  of  his  departure  was  at  hand  and  that 
he  would  soon  meet  his  Lord,  we  wonder  if  a  vision 
of  that  earlier  time  came  to  him,  as  we  are  told  it 
so  often  had  come,  when  in  the  midst  of  his  toil  the 
longing  for  meditation  and  silence  overburdened  him. 
Did  Severinus  the  missionary,  who  had  spent  the 
years  in  service  for  his  fellowmen,  look  back  to  that 
night  when  alone  with  his  Christ  in  the  desert  he  had 
promised  to  give  up  his  hermit's  life  and  go  out  to 
an  unknown  land  and  people  to  minister  to  his  Lord's 
needy  children?  Can  we  doubt  that  he  had  learned 
at  last  the  lesson  that  the  vision  of  God  is  most  surely 
kept  when  it  leads  us  to  suffering  humanity  ?  "  Inas- 
much as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of  the  least  of  these  my 
brethren,  ye  did  it  unto  me." 


VIII 

CELTIC  MISSIONARIES  ON  THE 
CONTINENT 

COLUMBANUS    AND   GaLLUS 

"The  path  of  duty  is  the  way  to  glory  ; 
He,  that  ever  following  her  commands, 
On  with  toil  of  heart  and  knees  and  hands, 
Thro'  the  long  gorge  to  the  far  light  has  won 
His  path  upward,  and  prevail'd, 
Shall  find  the  toppling  crags  of  Duty  scaled 
Are  close  upon  the  shining  table-lands 
To  which  our  God  himself  is  moon  and  sun." 

—  Tennyson. 

ON  a  day  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  590/  when 
Childebert  II.  sat  upon  the  throne  of  Aus- 
trasia  and  Guntram  ruled  over  Burgundy, 
there  might  have  been  seen  travelling  slowly  and 
patiently  along  the  rocky  defiles  of  the  Vosges 
Mountains  in  eastern  France  a  line  of  black-robed 
figures,  carrying  bulky  wallets  and  cases  of  roughly 
finished  leather  and  in  their  hands  small  manu- 
script books,  from  which  they  scarce  raised  their 
eyes  to  the  dark  stretches  of  hardy  fir  and  pine  that 
rose  above  them.  Their  leader,  a  stern  and  spare 
but  muscular  figure,  bore  in  his  hand  a  staff  of  intri- 
cate workmanship,  the  delicate  tracery  of  its  curved 
head  forming  a  striking  contrast  to  the  severely  plain 

1  Other  dates  are  585  and  574. 

83 


84  CELTIC  MISSIONARIES 

habits  of  the  little  company.  Yet  could  we  have 
looked  within  the  cases  which  these  travellers  bore 
suspended  from  their  shoulders  we  should  doubtless 
have  found  more  than  one  beautifully  illuminated 
volume  which  in  the  fineness  of  its  workmanship 
would  have  matched  their  bishop's  crozier.  For  as 
you  have  already  guessed  these  men  were  Celtic  mis- 
sionaries, who  had  journeyed  hither  from  Ireland, 
under  the  leadership  of  Columbanus,  to  revive  the 
faith  in  Gaul  and  to  preach  the  message  of  life  to 
the  wild  Suevians  of  the  border. 

Their  destination  was  the  ruined  fortress  of  Anne- 
gratis,  which  the  Romans  had  erected  at  this  point  to 
keep  back  the  invading  northern  tribes,  but  which  in 
common  with  the  other  Roman  fortresses  of  the  Em- 
pire's frontier  had  long  ago  fallen  before  the  relent- 
less onmarch  of  pagan  multitudes.  Its  massive 
masonry  loomed  up  before  the  Irish  missionaries  at 
last,  the  soft  light  of  the  setting  sun  resting  over 
broken  archway  and  fallen  tower  with  a  mellow 
radiance  that  transformed  the  sombre  fortifications 
into  masses  of  tender  colour.  Yet  as  the  monks 
closed  their  Psalters  and  looked  out  upon  the  sur- 
roundings of  their  future  home,  no  human  habitation 
broke  the  wilderness  of  bleak  hills  and  rocky  ravines, 
and  all  too  well  they  knew  that  the  men  who 
roamed  this  desolate  region  were  a  wild,  untamable 
folk,  who  must  be  lovingly  and  patiently  served  before 
they  would  forget  their  hostile  suspicion  of  foreign 
intruders  and  listen  willingly  to  the  new,  strange  mes- 
sage. Too  fiery  a  zeal,  however,  burned  in  the 
hearts  of  these  brave  Celts,  whose  own  people  had 
not  long  before  worshipped  strange  gods,  for  them  to 
falter    over   the   task    they    had    gladly    undertaken. 


COLUMBANUS  AND  GALLUS  85 

And  so  before  the  evening  shadows  fell,  from  the  old 
ruins  where  Roman  legions  had  invoked  the  wargod 
Mars  rose  the  solemn  vesper  chants  of  a  Christian 
service,  and  hearts  that  longed  for  the  Heavenly 
Country  registered  secret  vows  to  wait  their  Lord's 
coming  in  the  service  of  His  needy  and  untaught  chil- 
dren. Still  across  the  chasm  of  the  centuries  they 
stretch  hands  of  fellowship  to  the  missionary  labourer 
of  to-day,  and  differences  of  time  and  faith  vanish 
before  the  might  of  that  one  great  common  purpose, 
the  bringing  of  life  more  abundant  to  Christ's  stray- 
ing sheep. 

In  a  very  practical  way  these  missionaries  set  about 
the  winning  of  their  warrior  neighbours,  and  soon 
the  waste  land,  cleared  and  carefully  cultivated,  began 
to  show  the  tender  green  of  the  early  wheat  and 
thatched  buildings, — chapel  and  round  tower,  the 
common  refectory  and  the  separate  cells  of  the  breth- 
ren,— preached  a  silent  sermon  of  peaceful  and  indus- 
trious living  much  needed  by  a  folk  who  knew  not  as 
yet  the  better  way  of  settled  homes  and  honest  toil. 
For  soon  the  pagan  Suevians  came,  and  came  in  ever 
increasing  numbers,  to  watch  these  strange  people, 
who  were  so  different  from  the  Franks  of  the  neigh- 
bouring kingdoms.  Never  had  they  had  friends  like 
these,  men  who  spoke  little  but  gave  themselves  to 
comforting  their  sorrowing  ones  and  healing  their 
sick,  who  took  the  fear  of  death  from  those  going  out 
into  the  shadows  and  rebuked  sin  wherever  they 
found  it.  Nor  was  it  to  the  followers  of  Odin  only 
that  the  little  station  became  a  beacon  light  set  in  the 
darkness.  Many  of  the  Frankish  chieftains  who  had 
been  little  affected  by  a  Christianity  adopted  solely 
for  state  reasons,  were  attracted  by  the  unselfish  serv- 


86  CELTIC  MISSIONARIES 

ice  of  the  missionaries.  Before  long  the  work  de- 
volving upon  the  labourers  became  so  great  that  a 
new  mission  station  seemed  necessary,  and  Colum- 
banus  founded  Luxeuil,  while  still  later  he  built  a 
third  monastic  school  at  Fontaines.  In  all  these  a 
strict  discipline  was  maintained  which,  hard  as  it  may- 
seem  to-day,  doubtless  served  to  keep  the  luxury  and 
low  ideals  of  the  Prankish  clergy  from  penetrating 
these  healthful  retreats. 

The  man  who  formulated  this  code  of  rules,  who 
had  dared  the  terrors  of  the  wilderness,  and  later 
would  brave  the  anger  of  the  cruel  Brunehaut  for 
conscience'  sake,  is  a  character  worthy  of  our  atten- 
tion. Born  in  eastern  Ireland  in  the  middle  of  the 
sixth  century,  of  noble  ancestry,  educated  at  Cluain- 
innis  and  Banchor,  at  the  age  of  thirty  he  had  left 
his  native  island  to  preach  the  gospel  on  the  Conti- 
nent. With  twelve  companions  he  landed  on  the 
shores  of  France  and  travelled  by  way  of  the  Bur- 
gundian  court  to  the  lonely  valleys  of  the  Vosges. 
First  among  his  brethren  in  all  difficult  labours,  he 
united  the  natural  asceticism  of  the  early  Irish  church 
with  a  practical  and  yet  extremely  spiritual  faith. 
In  the  years  following  his  arrival  at  Annegratis  the 
contrast  of  his  life  and  teaching  with  the  corrupt 
Gallic  church  became  so  constant  a  rebuke  to  the  lat- 
ter and  aroused  such  enmity  that  Columbanus  was 
forced  to  defend  his  position.  To  the  bishops  who  had 
attacked  his  differing  ecclesiastical  customs  he  wrote 
with  an  almost  modern  spirit  of  broad  fellowship. 

"  I  came  as  a  stranger  among  you  in  behalf  of  our 
common  Lord  and  Master,  Jesus  Christ.  In  His 
name  I  beseech  you,  let  me  live  in  peace  and  quiet. 
.    .    .   Regard  us  not  as  strangers,  for  we  are  mem- 


COLUMBANUS  AND  GALLUS  87 

bers  together  of  one  Body,  whether  we  be  Gauls,  or 
Britons,  or  Iberians,  or  to  whatever  nation  we  be- 
long. Therefore  let  us  all  rejoice  in  knowledge  of 
the  faith,  and  let  us  strive  earnestly  to  attain  to- 
gether unto  a  perfect  man,  unto  the  measure  of  the 
stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ;  in  communion  with 
Him  let  us  learn  to  love  one  another,  that  with  Him 
we  may  together  reign  forevermore." 

Meanwhile  King  Guntram  had  died  and  Thierry 
n.,  grandson  of  Sigebert  and  Brunehaut,  ruled  in 
Burgundy.  Nowhere  was  vice  more  openly  allowed 
than  at  the  Burgundian  court,  but  King  Thierry  seems 
at  first  to  have  been  touched  by  the  pure  gospel  of 
Columbanus'  preaching  and  often  came  to  visit  him 
at  his  monastery  of  Luxeuil.  Brunehaut  and  the 
profligate  nobles  were  naturally  ill  content  with  the 
influence  that  the  Irish  missionary  was  exerting  over 
the  king,  and  Thierry  himself  seems  to  have  been 
much  lacking  in  strength  of  purpose.  In  the  end  the 
queen  and  her  advisers  won  and  Thierry  appeared  at 
Luxeuil  with  a  decree  of  banishment  for  Columbanus. 
The  missionary  refused  to  comply  with  the  king's 
mandate  and  was  forcibly  sent  out  of  the  kingdom. 
After  long  wanderings  and  shipwreck  Columbanus 
found  his  way  to  Switzerland,  where  begins  a  new 
and  less  successful  period  of  missionary  activity. 

The  Irish  monk  was  not  alone  in  this  mission. 
One  Callus,  who  had  sailed  with  him  from  the  home 
country,  was  his  efficient  helper,  and  left  an  honoured 
name  in  the  school  which  he  founded  after  Colum- 
banus had  retired  into  northern  Italy.  Together  these 
missionaries  sailed  up  the  Rhine  to  Lake  Zurich, 
where  they  found  a  wild  pagan  folk,  worshippers  of 
Odin,  who  were  little  inclined  to  listen  to  new  doc- 


88  CELTIC  MISSIONARIES 

trines  of  any  sort.  Moreover,  these  missionaries  ap- 
parently forgot  Paul's  message  delivered  on  Mars 
Hill,  and  instead  of  patiently  revealing  the  one  true 
God  and  giving  this  people  a  new  vision  of  life  in  the 
story  of  the  Christ,  they  antagonized  them  by  first 
seeking  to  break  down  the  worship  of  the  Teutonic 
deities  by  forceful  means.  To-day  the  missionary 
labourer  has  learned  a  better  way,  and  even  in  those 
early  centuries  there  was  an  Aidan  and  an  Ansgar. 

"  Girt  around  by  rugged  mountains,"  and  reflecting 
in  its  tranquil  waters  the  clouds  and  stars  of  heaven. 
Lake  Constance,  to  which  our  missionaries  were 
driven  by  the  enraged  inhabitants  of  Zurich,  formed 
an  ideal  station  for  their  second  mission  in  Switzer- 
land. Something  of  all  this  beauty  doubtless  entered 
the  souls  of  the  art-loving  Celts ;  but,  mingled  with  it, 
would  come  the  sadder  thought  of  the  suffering  and 
sin  in  which  this  folk  was  sunk.  Here  once  in  the 
long  ago  Christ  had  been  preached  and  unknown 
hands  had  raised  a  church;  but  now  the  graven  im- 
ages of  their  pagan  gods  were  worshipped  at  the 
Christian  altar,  and  in  the  half-primitive  thought  of 
these  early  missionaries  the  power  of  unseen  evil 
forces  bound  this  whole  region  with  cords  only  to 
be  broken  by  the  one  Blessed  Name. 

Two  dramatic  scenes  stand  out  from  the  stay  of 
the  missionaries  at  the  Roman  Brigantia, — one  his- 
torical, the  other  bearing  the  mark  of  the  mystic;  both, 
however,  typical  of  the  Irish  temperament.  The  first 
of  these  is  the  cleansing  of  the  church  of  St.  Aurelius. 

Not  long  after  the  arrival  of  the  missionaries  at 
Lake  Constance,  a  festival  was  held  in  honour  of 
the  local  deities,  whose  images  desecrated  the  old 
Roman  church.     When  the  throng  had  gathered  by 


COLUMBANUS  AND  GALLUS  89 

the  beautiful  lakeside,  Gallus  stood  up  in  their  midst, 
telling  them  that  it  was  for  the  worship  of  Jehovah 
that  men  had  reared  these  walls  within  which  they 
were  gathered,  and  that  here  once  more  the  Christ 
must  be  honoured  and  heathen  temple  become  again 
the  dwelling-place  of  the  Ruler  of  all  men.  Then  as 
some  seemed  ready  to  believe,  the  missionaries  seized 
the  abhorrent  images  and,  breaking  them  in  pieces, 
threw  the  fragments  far  out  into  the  blue  waters  of 
the  Bodensee.  Columbanus  reconsecrated  the  church, 
and  slowly  the  people  returned  to  their  homes,  some 
pondering  deeply  over  the  earnest  words  of  the  un- 
known traveller  from  beyond  the  seas,  others — and 
by  far  the  greater  number — in  anger  at  the  impious 
action  of  these  foreign  intruders,  plotting  speedy 
vengeance. 

The  second  scene  is  worthy  of  the  poet's  pen. 
Dusk  slumbers  over  the  Bodensee.  Far  out  on  the 
quiet  lake  the  frail  boat  of  Gallus  rises  and  falls  on 
the  heaving  waters  while  its  master  industriously 
seeks  in  the  dark  depths  food  for  his  struggling  mis- 
sion. The  nature  worship  of  old  pagan  time  has  left 
its  imprint  upon  tlie  Celtic  church,  and  for  him  the 
encircling  mountains  are  filled  with  unseen  presences, 
while  the  wind  that  ripples  the  tranquil  surface  of 
the  waters  is  the  utterance  of  lost  spirits.  Suddenly 
Gallus  starts  at  the  sound  of  a  distant  cry.  At  first 
an  inarticulate  wail,  as  he  listens  he  hears  the  plaint 
of  the  Spirit  of  the  Mountains,  "  Arise  and  hasten 
to  my  assistance!  Behold,  strangers  have  come  and 
driven  me  from  my  temple.  Hasten  to  my  aid,  and 
help  me  to  expel  them  from  the  land !  " 

In  answer,  from  the  dark  depths  by  the  side  of  the 
boat  comes  the  voice  of  the  Spirit  of  the  Waters: 


90  CELTIC  MISSIONARIES 

"  Lo!  even  now  one  of  them  is  busy  on  my  surface, 
but  I  cannot  injure  him.  Oftentimes  have  I  desired 
to  break  his  nets,  but  as  often  have  I  been  baffled  by 
the  invocation  of  an  all-prevailing  Name,  which  never 
fails  to  cross  his  lips.  Thus  defended  he  always  de- 
spises my  snares."  ^ 

And  Gallus  returns  to  the  monastery  strengthened 
in  soul. 

Three  years  they  continued  thus  at  Bregenz,  when 
hostility  again  arising,  Columbanus  crossed  the  Alps 
into  Italy  to  spend  the  evening  of  his  life  in  a  mon- 
astery which  he  erected  at  Bobbio.  Here  the  veteran 
missionary  died  at  an  advanced  age  on  November  21, 
615.  He  had  helped  to  win  the  native  church  in 
Burgundy  and  other  parts  of  Gaul  to  a  higher  stand- 
ard of  Christian  living,  had  stood  out  against  the 
wickedness  of  the  Merovingian  court,  had  won  many 
a  convert  from  the  pagan  tribes  of  the  Vosges  and  the 
Alps,  had  combated  Arianism  in  his  last  years  in 
Lombardy,  while,  most  enduring  work  of  all,  he  had 
founded  centres  of  Christian  influence  which  for  a 
time  at  least  were  to  stand  for  the  intellectual  and 
material  prosperity  of  the  people,  as  well  as  for  their 
religious  instruction. 

When  Columbanus  withdrew  from  Bregenz,  Gallus 
stayed  on  in  Switzerland,  and  for  twelve  years  longer 
laboured  in  these  forests,  founding  in  the  valley  of 
the  Steinach  a  monastery,-  which  in  course  of  time 
became  one  of  the  most  famous  schools  of  Europe. 
Modestly  refusing  all  honours  and  gifts,  this  humble 
labourer  lived  tranquilly  in  his  retreat,  seeing  one  and 
another  of  his  heathen  neighbours  lay  aside  the  old 

iMaclear,  "  Apostles  of  Mediaeval  Europe." 
2  St.  Gall. 


COLUMBANUS  AND  GALLUS  91 

belief  and  accept  the  faith  he  loved  until,  full  of  days 
and  revered  by  all  the  people,  he  died  of  fever  while 
returning  from  a  visit  to  a  friend  at  Arbon. 

Much  as  we  honour  these  missionary  heroes,  how- 
ever, we  must  not  forget  the  great  number  of  equally 
faithful  and  consecrated  labourers  who  were  not  lead- 
ers, as  were  Columbanus  and  Gallus,  and  who  did  not 
win  lasting  earthly  fame.  Yet  of  such  lives  will  the 
true  history  of  Christian  missions  in  Europe  be  made 
up  when  at  last  every  man's  work  shall  be  made  mani- 
fest. And  first  among  those  to  give  these  unsung 
heroes  their  due  praise  will  be  their  brethren  whose 
work  history  has  perpetuated,  but  who  sought  no 
other  reward  than  their  Master's  approval. 


IX 

THE  FOUNDER  OF  CANTERBURY 

Augustine  and  the  Conversion  of  Kent 

"  Thy  words  are  fair  ;  and  far  thj'  men  have  come 
To  bring  us  tidings  that  ye  think  are  true  : 
But  they  are  doubtful,  difficult,  unproved  ; 
A  god  who  came  in  fashion  of  a  thrall, 
A  god  who  would  not  fight,  but  suffered  thus — 
Our  gods  are  warriors.     Yet  'tis  strange,  'tis  strange. 
But  go  thou  welcome  on  to  Canterbury  ; 
Ye  shall  have  shelter  and  protection  there  ; 
And  ye  are  free  to  speak  to  any  man, 
To  earl  or  churl,  woman  or  little  child, 
About  these  matters.     Free  are  ye  ;  free,  too, 
Our  folk  of  Kent ;  for  they  are  Englishmen, 
Not  to  be  forced,  but  ready  to  be  fair." 

—From  The  English  Church  Pageant,  1909. 

(^thelberht's  reply  to  Augustine.) 

ISTORIC  old  Yorkshire,  with  its  wooded 
hills  and  pleasant  vales,  its  open  wolds  and 
wind-swept  cliffs,  has  given  to  English  Chris- 
tianity many  a  name  of  which  the  Briton  and  his  kin- 
dred across  the  sea  are  justly  proud.  Where  the  red 
sandstone  ruins  of  Whitby's  abbey  church  stand  on  a 
lofty  crag  overlooking  the  North  Sea,  in  the  very 
teeth  of  the  winds  that  sweep  unhindered  across  the 
desolate  moors,  the  humble  cowherd  Csedmon  sang 
his  immortal  lays.  From  this  same  North  country 
centuries  later  there  went  forth  one  who,  as  Vicar 

92 


H 


THE  CONVERSION  OF  KENT  93 

of  Lutterworth,  was  to  give  to  his  countrymen  their 
first  great  EngHsh  Bible,  while  to  another  Yorkshire 
reformer  England  is  indebted  for  her  first  printed 
translation  of  the  Bible.  But  long  before  the  days  of 
Coverdale  and  Wyclif  and  Csedmon,  when  Yorkshire 
was  still  Anglo-Saxon  Deira,  there  sailed  one  day 
from  the  kingdom  of  yElla  a  group  of  fair-haired  lads 
destined  for  the  slave  markets  of  the  Imperial  City, 
who  all  unwittingly  were  to  bring  to  Saxon  England 
the  first  missionaries  of  the  gospel. 

The  historians  have  delighted  to  relate  the  story 
of  that  memorable  meeting  in  the  crowded  market- 
place of  the  Roman  Greatheart  with  the  homesick 
Bernician  slave  lads/  He  was  a  man  of  broad  sym- 
pathies, this  Gregory  of  whom  they  tell  us,  one  to 
whom,  as  to  our  own  Lincoln,  all  suffering  made  an 
immediate  appeal.  More  than  once  in  later  years, 
although  the  Roman  Church  constantly  approved  the 
holding  of  slaves,  Gregory  gave  freedom  to  wretched 
captives  brought  to  Rome  for  distribution  among  the 
patrician  families  of  the  surrounding  country,  even 
selling  some  of  the  sacred  plate  for  their  ransom, 
since,  as  he  said,  "  the  Redeemer  had  become  incar- 
nate to  set  men  free."  It  was  only  natural,  then,  that 
Gregory  should  stop  that  morning  on  his  walk 
through  the  Forum,  attracted  by  the  unusual  beauty  of 
the  English  lads,  and  more  natural  still  that,  having 
given  up  his  immense  wealth  for  the  Master  whom  he 
served,  he  should  first  of  all  inquire  of  the  Jewish 
slave  dealer  whether  these  children  of  a  distant  nation 
and  a  strange  speech  were  worshippers  of  the  one 

1  These  boys  were  probably  captives  taken  during  .Ella's  cam- 
paigns in  the  northern  kingdom,  Bernicia,  which  included  Dur- 
ham, Northumberland,  and  the  southeastern  part  of  Scotland. 


94        THE  FOUNDER  OF  CANTERBURY 

true  God.  Their  master  answering  that  they  were 
by  birth  and  training  pagan,  Gregory  became  sad  at 
heart  because  of  the  far-away  island  and  its  need, 
and  not  long  afterward  set  out  to  carry  the  gospel 
story  to  the  Angles  of  Deira.  Unfortunately,  Rome 
cared  little  for  missions  and  much  for  its  own  need, 
and  Gregory  was  altogether  too  great  a  man  to  be 
thus  lost  to  the  home  church.  He  had  not  gone  far 
when  he  was  overtaken  and  commanded  to  return 
to  the  capital,  where,  a  few  years  later,  he  was  raised 
to  the  pontifical  chair  by  the  death  of  Pelagius. 

Years  passed,  during  which  Gregory's  far-sighted 
policies  were  bringing  order  out  of  chaos  in  the  ec- 
clesiastical system  of  which  he  had  become  leader. 
Then  when  the  more  important  problems  had  been 
solved  and  the  Roman  bishop  felt  that  for  a  space 
he  could  give  his  mind  to  other  matters,  his  thought 
turned  back  to  that  earlier  time  and  a  mission  was 
planned  for  the  far-away  island  of  Britain.  As 
leader  of  the  little  band  of  missionaries,  Gregory 
chose  Augustine,  prior  of  St.  Andrew's,  a  monastery 
which  the  Bishop  had  erected  on  the  site  of  his 
father's  home  and  in  which  he  had  spent  his  earlier 
years.  Augustine  was  to  be  assisted  by  forty  monks, 
most  of  them  from  the  same  monastery,  and  in  the 
late  winter  or  early  spring  of  596  the  party  set  out  on 
their  long  and  toilsome  journey  to  Britain. 

At  the  gateway  of  the  monastery  Gregory  spoke 
his  last  words  of  blessing  and  counsel  to  the  missiona- 
ries, and  then  watched  them  wind  slowly  down  the  hill- 
slope  to  be  lost  from  view  in  the  tortuous  streets  of  the 
ancient  city.  When  at  last  the  great  Bishop  was  left 
alone  on  the  hilltop,  gazing  out  over  the  mighty  ruins 
where  not   so  many  years  before  pagan  Rome  had 


THE  CONVERSION  OF  KENT  95 

sought  to  appease  the  gods  by  the  death  of  Christian 
converts,  we  wonder  if  this  man,  who  held  first  place  in 
the  Roman  Church,  did  not  half  wish  himself  a  humble 
monk  once  more,  that  he  might  have  the  joy  denied 
him  now  of  going  in  and  out  among  this  sturdy  peo- 
ple of  the  west  and  winning  them  to  the  Master's 
service. 

As  long  and  difficult  a  journey  with  as  unknown 
and  dangerous  a  field  at  its  close  lay  before  these 
newly  appointed  missionaries  as  ever  tested  the  cour- 
age of  a  Williams  or  a  Mofifat;  for  distance  is  not 
always  measured  in  miles  and  travel  in  the  sixth  cen- 
tury was  not  so  safe  as  it  had  been  when  the  Empire 
was  unshaken.  Unaccustomed  either  to  extreme 
physical  exertion  or  to  battling  with  unforeseen  diffi- 
culties, and  terrified  by  the  reports  which  some  of 
their  fellow  travellers  gave  them  of  the  fierce  and 
barbarous  Teutons  among  whom  they  were  to  labour, 
when  at  last  they  reached  a  haven  of  refuge  in  the 
island  monastery  of  Lerins,  lying  off  the  modern 
Cannes^  they  made  all  haste  to  send  Augustine  back 
to  Rome,  begging  for  a  return  to  their  quiet  life  on 
the  Ccclian  Hill.  Had  they  known  Gregory  better, 
they  would  not  have  wasted  time  in  urging  such 
a  request.  His  refusal  was  kind  but  firm.  "  No 
man,  having  set  his  hand  to  the  plow,  and  looking  back, 
is  fit  for  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven." 

It  was  a  land  of  strife  and  turmoil  to  which  these 
messengers  of  peace  came  in  the  April  days  of  the 
following  year,  and  in  all  those  separate  warring 
kingdoms  no  one  as  yet  dreamed  of  a  united  England. 
To  weld  these  hostile  peoples  into  one  nation  holding 
a  common  sceptre  of  power,  there  must  come  the  uni- 
fying influence  of  such  a  message  as  Augustine  and 


96   THE  FOUNDER  OF  CANTERBURY 

his  monks  had  been  sent  to  preach.  This  troublous 
condition  of  the  country  doubtless  explains  the  choice 
of  Kent  rather  than  of  Deira  for  the  first  field  of 
missionary  enterprise.  For  a  new  king  reigned  in 
the  north,  whither  Gregory  had  planned  so  long  be- 
fore to  carry  the  message,  and  so  hostile  was  this 
chieftain  to  British  Christianity  that  to  attempt  the 
establishment  of  a  mission  within  his  dominions 
would  have  been  all  but  folly.  In  the  south,  however, 
a  door  seemed  opened  for  the  good  work  in  the  atti- 
tude of  King  ^thelberht  of  Kent  toward  the  religion 
of  his  wife,  a  Christian  princess  from  the  north  of 
France.  Queen  Bertha,  so  the  missionaries  would 
learn,  was  allowed  to  worship  God  unhindered  in  a 
little  British  church  not  far  from  the  royal  palace  of 
Canterbury.  To  the  tolerant  nature,  of  ^thelberht, 
therefore,  it  was  decided  that  Augustine  should  make 
his  first  appeal.  And  so  it  came  about  that  on  a 
spring  day  not  long  after  Easter,  in  the  year  of  our 
Lord  597,  a  little  ship,  bearing  to  our  Saxon  fore- 
fathers the  first  missionaries  of  the  gospel,  dropped 
anchor  in  the  sheltered  haven  which  divides  the  white 
cliffs  of  St.  Margaret's  from  those  of  Ramsgate. 
Where  to-day  in  the  midst  of  broad  fields  stands  the 
tiny  hamlet  of  Ebbsfleet,  marking  the  old  coastline 
of  Pegwell  Bay,  on  ground  which,  tradition  tells  us, 
a  century  and  a  half  earlier  had  been  the  landing  place 
of  Hengist  and  Horsa,  Augustine's  little  band  of 
Christian  labourers  moored  their  vessel,  disembarking 
on  the  shores  of  Thanet  to  begin  a  conquest  far 
mightier  and  more  lasting  than  any  yet  accomplished 
by  Roman  and  Saxon. 

In  this  little  island,   formed  by  the   delta   of  the 
Stour,  the  missionaries  waited  while  the  interpreters 


THE  CONVERSION  OF  KENT  97 

whom  they  had  brought  with  them  from  Gaul  has- 
tened to  Canterbury  with  Augustine's  message  to  the 
king.  The  next  scene  in  the  story  of  England's  con- 
version is  very  typical  of  that  primitive  age  and  its 
customs.  King  ^thelberht  of  Kent,  moved  partly 
by  his  knowledge  of  the  larger  civilization  of  the 
South  and  partly  by  his  respect  for  the  faith  which 
his  good  queen  held,  came  in  person  to  Thanet  to  dis- 
cover for  himself  what  manner  of  men  these  new- 
comers were  who  thus  asked  admission  to  his  king- 
dom, and  whether  it  was  safe  to  allow  their  teaching 
free  course  among  his  subjects.  A  memorable  event 
it  was  in  England's  history  when,  for  the  first  time, 
these  two  noble  characters  were  brought  face  to  face, 
— the  Christian  labourer  who,  by  his  sincere  life  and 
faith,  was  to  win  a  kingdom  to  his  cause,  and  the 
good  king,  still  honoured  after  all  these  centuries  for 
his  fair-minded  conservatism  and  large  toleration. 
We  can  see  them  even  yet  assembled  under  a  giant 
oak  on  the  higher  ground  which  formed  the  central 
portion  of  the  island,  while  the  wide  heavens  bent 
over  them  in  blessing  and  the  sound  of  the  distant 
waves  filled  the  pauses  of  the  interview  with  a  low, 
sweet  music.  On  one  side  would  be  the  Saxon  king, 
surrounded  by  his  tall,  broad-shouldered  thegns,  their 
long  yellow  locks  falling  over  tunics  of  rich  wools, 
wearing  on  their  arms  twisted  torques  of  gold,  while 
spear  and  helmet  and  shield  rested  on  the  ground  at 
their  side.  Over  against  these  sturdy  warriors,  type 
of  the  old  pagan  life,  would  appear  the  approaching 
procession  of  black-robed  missionaries,  led  by  the 
noble  figure  of  Augustine,  and  carrying  in  their  midst 
a  great  cross  of  silver  and  a  picture  of  the  Christ 
crudely  painted  on  a  bit  of  board.     Chanting  a  prayer 


98        THE  FOUNDER  OF  CANTERBURY 

for  themselves  and  the  people  among  whom  they  had 
come,  these  monks  advanced  toward  the  king's  com- 
pany and,  at  ^thelberht's  command,  sat  down  on  the 
green  grass  and  beneath  the  blue  heavens  preached 
Christ  to  these  sturdy  pagan  warriors.  When  Au- 
gustine had  finished  his  message,  ^thelberht  called 
his  thegns  together,  at  the  close  of  the  consultation 
making  this  reply  to  the  missionaries'  request  for  per- 
mission to  preach  in  his  kingdom: 

"  Your  words  and  promises  are  fair,  but  because 
they  are  new  to  us,  and  of  uncertain  import,  I  cannot 
consent  to  them  so  far  as  to  forsake  that  which  I  have 
so  long  observed  with  the  whole  English  nation.  But, 
because  you  are  come  from  far  as  strangers  into  my 
kingdom,  and,  as  I  conceive,  are  desirous  to  impart  to 
us  those  things  which  you  believe  to  be  true,  and  most 
beneficial,  we  desire  not  to  harm  you,  but  will  give 
you  favourable  entertainment,  and  take  care  to  supply 
you  with  all  things  necessary  to  your  sustenance;  nor 
do  we  forbid  you  to  preach  and  gain  as  many  as  you 
can  to  your  religion."  ^ 

And  so  Augustine  and  his  monks  were  invited  to 
the  royal  capital  at  Durovernum,  and  the  last  stage  of 
their  journey  was  begun.  Across  the  downs  from 
Richborough,  over  the  solidly  built  Roman  road,  they 
came  at  last  to  the  summit  of  St.  Martin's  Hill,  and 
had  their  first  view  of  the  city  which  their  efforts  were 
to  make  a  stronghold  of  Christianity  for  all  future 
ages.  Far  below  them  it  lay  on  the  banks  of  the 
Stour — a  city  of  low  wooden  dwellings,  built  about  the 
rude  palace  of  the  king.  On  the  slope  of  the  hill, 
between  them  and  the  city,  they  would  see  a  little 
chapel  of  Roman  brick,  telling  them  that  they  were 
iBede  I,  25. 


THE  CONVERSION  OF  KENT  m 

not  coming  to  a  land  wholly  pagan,  for  here  Liudhard 
daily  conducted  Christian  service  for  the  queen  and 
her  ladies.  Midway  between  this  chapel,  which  was 
dedicated  to  St.  Martin,  and  the  city  on  the  river  shore 
below,  their  guide  would  point  to  a  grove  of  oak, 
within  whose  shadows,  he  would  tell  them,  stood  the 
temple  in  which  ^Ethelberht  was  wont  to  worship  his 
Saxon  deities.  As  the  missionaries  paused  for  a  mo- 
ment on  the  hilltop  and  looked  down  over  Christian 
church  and  heathen  temple  to  the  homes  of  these 
sturdy  Saxons,  whom  they  were  already  beginning  to 
regard  with  admiration,  a  sudden  realization  of  the 
magnitude  of  their  task  must  have  swept  over  them 
with  an  almost  overwhelming  force.  Could  the  power 
represented  by  that  little  chapel  and  their  own  small 
company  meet  and  turn  the  mighty  tide  of  heathen 
superstition  ?  It  was  a  question  awful  enough,  surely, 
to  make  stouter  hearts  than  these  falter  under  the  re- 
sponsibility. 

Somewhere  near  the  site  of  the  church  of  St.  Al- 
phege,  Augustine  and  his  helpers  were  given  lodging 
under  the  very  shadow  of  a  heathen  temple.  While 
they  waited  here  to  learn  the  pleasure  of  the  king,  we 
can  picture  them  setting  about  the  mastery  of  the 
difficult  Saxon  speech,  going  daily  at  the  hours  of  wor- 
ship to  the  little  church  on  the  hillside,  and  above  all, 
leading  a  simple,  earnest  life  of  devotion  to  all  things 
true  and  lovely  and  of  good  report,  which  gained  for 
themselves  and  for  their  Master,  whose  ambassadors 
they  were,  the  respectful  consideration  of  many  of  the 
more  thoughtful  citizens. 

Perhaps,  after  all,  Augustine  could  not  have  come  to 
this  little  kingdom  of  southern  England  at  a  time  more 
favourable  to  the  success  of  the  mission.     Only  a  cen- 


100   THE  FOUNDER  OF  CANTERBURY 

tury  and  a  half  had  elapsed  since  the  first  band  of 
Jutes  had  moored  their  ships  by  Kentish  shores,  and 
had  set  foot  upon  a  land  where  they  were  destined 
to  win  for  themselves  new  homes  and  new  dominion. 
A  fierce,  untamable,  and  marauding  people  in  the  old 
country,  where  they  possessed  scarcely  more  than 
island  villages  in  a  wide  ocean  of.  desolate  moors  and 
morass,  they  were  by  this  time  feeling  the  influence 
of  new  surroundings,  and  the  older  civilization  which 
they  were  supplanting,  and  through  this  very  upheaval 
of  old  tradition  in  their  material  life  and  the  necessity 
of  conforming  to  changed  conditions,  were  the  more 
ready  to  weigh  the  claims  of  a  new  faith  and  set  it  in 
contrast  over  against  the  religion  of  their  less  civilized 
ancestors.^ 

Among  the  first-fruits  of  Augustine's  mission  in 
England  was  the  open-minded  king  who  had  welcomed 
the  missionaries  at  Thanet,  and  on  the  Whitsunday 
following  their  arrival,  so  tradition  says,  the  monks 
gathered  in  St.  Martin's  church  to  witness  the  baptism 
of  the  royal  convert.  Happily,  ^thelberht,  as  we 
have  already  seen,  was  a  liberal-minded  king,  and 
Gregory,  in  his  directions  to  the  missionaries,  had 
shown  a  spirit  of  toleration  later  to  be  lost  and  found 
again  only  after  long  centuries  of  bitterness  and  blood- 
shed. So  no  man  in  all  the  Kentish  kingdom  was 
forced  to  leave  his  pagan  deities  unless  he  freely  chose 
to  adopt  the  new  faith.  Yet  such  was  the  irresistible 
beauty  of  the  message  and  so  great  the  loyalty  of  these 
fierce  Teutons  to  their  king  that  the  work  at  first  went 
forward  by  leaps  and  bounds.  Doubtless,  there  were 
many  who  thought  more  of  the  king's  favour  than  of 
Woden  or  of  Christ;  but,  crude  as  the  religious  life  of 
1  Kent  was  of  course  in  communication  with  Gaul. 


ST.  martin's  church,  canterbury 


CANTERBURY  CATHEDRAL 


THE  CONVERSION  OF  KENT  101 

many  of  the  new  converts  must  have  been,  and  mixed 
largely  with  heathen  practices  and  superstition,  yet  a 
fire  had  been  kindled  in  southeastern  England  which 
we  believe  will  never  go  out  so  long  as  the  English 
nation  endures, — a  fire  the  light  from  which  shines 
forth  to-day  beyond  the  boundaries  of  British  terri- 
tory to  brighten  the  gloom  of  distant  lands  yet  ig- 
norant of  the  revelation  come  to  all  men  in  the  advent 
of  the  Christ. 

For  these  new  converts — ten  thousand  were  baptized 
in  a  single  day  in  the  Swale — there  was  need  of  new 
churches,  and  again  Augustine  had  cause  to  rejoice  in 
the  zeal  of  the  newly  converted  king.  To  provide  for 
the  mission  work  within  the  city  a  Roman  church  was 
restored  and  a  suitable  dwelling  given  to  Augustine 
and  his  labourers,  tradition  even  going  far  enough  to 
afiirm  that  the  king  gave  them  his  royal  palace  and 
withdrew  with  his  court  to  Reculver,  on  the  northern 
coast  of  Kent.  In  the  old  Roman  church  which  the 
king  placed  at  Augustine's  disposal  we  have  a  glimpse 
of  Canterbury's  first  cathedral.  In  form  it  was  an 
oblong  basilica  with  eastern  and  western  apses  and 
towers  on  the  north  and  south  sides.  At  the  western 
end,  raised  slightly  above  the  nave  stood  Augustine's 
cathedra  or  throne,  with  the  high  altar  in  front,  near 
the  centre  of  the  apse.  Augustine  reconsecrated  it 
"  in  the  name  of  our  holy  Saviour,  God,  and  Lord, 
Jesus  Christ,"  and  the  Roman  basilica  became  the  first 
Christ  Church  of  England's  future  ecclesiastical  me- 
tropolis. The  king  also  desired  that  the  temple 
wherein  of  old  he  had  worshipped  Thor  and  Woden 
should  be  transformed  into  a  place  for  the  teaching  of 
the  Christian  faith  and  the  Church  of  St.  Pancras  was 
the  result.     Near  by  Augustine  founded  a  monastery 


102   THE  FOUNDER  OF  CANTERBURY 

for  the  training  of  Christian  workers/  Two  manu- 
script gospels  still  extant,  which  have  been  called  by 
Dean  Stanley  "  the  mother-books  of  England,"  were 
part  of  Gregory's  first  donation  to  the  monastic 
library.  So  during  all  the  last  years  of  Augustine's 
busy  life  he  would  eagerly  watch  the  steadily  rising 
walls  of  the  buildings  which  were  to  shelter  "  the 
mother-school,  the  mother-university  of  England,  the 
seat  of  letters  and  of  study  at  a  time  when  Cambridge 
was  a  desolate  fen  and  Oxford  a  tangled  forest  in  a 
wide  waste  of  waters."  ^ 

While  the  work  was  thus  taking  root  in  Kent,  Au- 
gustine was  looking  out  beyond  the  borders  of  ^thel- 
berht's  immediate  domains  and  seeking  a  means  of 
reaching  the  other  kingdoms  of  southern  England. 
For  this  larger  work  he  felt  the  necessity  of  co-opera- 
tion with  the  British  Church  in  Wales,  despite  the  fact 
of  the  intense  hatred  of  the  exiled  Celts  for  their  con- 
querors. 

The  first  meeting  with  the  representatives  of  the 
Celtic  church  took  place  on  the  borders  of  West  Saxon 
territory  probably  somewhere  on  the  south  shore  of 
the  Severn.  Here,  under  an  oak  long  afterwards 
known  as  Augustine's  oak,  the  Archbishop  of  the  Eng- 
lish sought  the  aid  of  the  British  bishops  on  condition 
that  they  acknowledge  him  as  their  spiritual  head  and 
keep  Easter  according  to  Roman  reckoning.  This 
first  conference  proving  partially  unsuccessful,  a  sec- 
ond meeting  was  planned  for  the  final  decision  of  the 
British  Church.  Let  us  listen  to  the  story  as  the  Ven- 
erable Bede  has  related  it  in  his  History.^ 

1  It  seems  very  fitting  that  the  site  of  the  monastery  should 
still  be  occupied  by  a  missionary  college. 
2 Dean  Stanley,  "  Memorials  of  Canterbury."  ^Bede  II,  2. 


THE  CONVERSION  OF  KENT  103 

"  They  that  were  to  go  to  the  aforesaid  council,  be- 
tool<:  themselves  first  to  a  certain  holy  and  discreet  man, 
who  was  wont  to  lead  the  life  of  a  hermit  amongst 
them,  to  consult  with  him,  whether  they  ought,  at  the 
preaching  of  Augustine,  to  forsake  their  traditions. 
He  answered,  '  H  he  is  a  man  of  God,  follow  him.' — 
*  How  shall  we  know  that  ?  '  said  they.  He  replied, 
'  Our  Lord  saith.  Take  My  yoke  upon  you,  and  learn 
of  Me,  for  I  am  meek  and  lowly  in  heart;  if  then, 
Augustine  is  meek  and  lowly  of  heart,  it^is  to  be  be- 
lieved that  he  bears  the  yoke  of  Christ  himself,  and 
offers  it  to  you  to  bear.  But,  if  he  is  harsh  and  proud, 
it  is  plain  that  he  is  not  of  God,  nor  are  we  to  regard 
his  words.'  They  said  again,  '  And  how  shall  we  dis- 
cern even  this  ?  ' — '  Do  you  contrive,'  said  the  anchor- 
ite, '  that  he  first  arrive  with  his  company  at  the  place 
where  the  synod  is  to  be  held;  and  if  at  your  approach 
he  rises  up  to  you,  hear  him  submissively,  being  assured 
that  he  is  the  servant  of  Christ ;  but  if  he  despises  you, 
and  does  not  rise  up  to  you,  whereas  you  are  more  in 
number,  let  him  also  be  despised  by  you.' 

"  They  did  as  he  directed ;  and  it  happened,  that  as 
they  approached,  Augustine  was  sitting  on  a  chair. 
When  they  perceived  it,  they  were  angry,  and,  charg- 
ing him  with  pride,  set  themselves  to  contradict  all  he 
said.  He  said  to  them,  *  Many  things  ye  do  which  are 
contrary  to  our  custom,  or  rather  to  the  custom  of  the 
universal  church,  and  yet,  if  you  will  comply  with 
me  in  these  three  matters,  to  wit,  to  keep  Easter  at  the 
due  time;  to  fulfil  the  ministry  of  baptism,  by  which 
we  are  born  again  to  God,  according  to  the  custom  of  • 
the  holy  Roman  Apostolic  Church;  and  to  join  with 
us  in  preaching  the  Word  of  God  to  the  English  na- 
tion, we  will  gladly  suffer  all  the  other  things  you  do, 


104      THE  FOUNDER  OF  CANTERBURY 

though  contrary  to  our  customs.'  They  answered  that 
they  would  do  none  of  those  things  nor  receive  him  as 
their  archbishop;  for  they  said  among  themselves,  '  If 
he  would  not  rise  up  to  us  now,  how  much  more  will 
he  despise  us,  as  of  no  account,  if  we  begin  to  be  under 
his  subjection.'  Then  the  man  of  God,  Augustine,  is 
said  to  have  threatened  them,  that  if  they  would  not 
accept  peace  with  their  brethren,  they  should  have  war 
with  their  enemies;  and  if  they  would  not  preach  the 
way  of  life  to  the  English  nation,  they  should  suffer 
at  their  hands  the  vengeance  of  death." 

What  a  revelation  of  our  faulty  human  nature  do 
we  find  in  this  short  narrative.  Suspicion,  pride,  per- 
sonal animosity,  narrowness  of  vision — allowed  to 
take  precedence  of  the  one  supreme  need,  the  conver- 
sion of  the  English  to  the  Christ.  And  what  added 
force  the  story  gives  to  that  last  prayer  of  the  Mas- 
ter's that  His  disciples  all  might  be  one — one  in  motive, 
one  in  love  for  the  world,  one  in  love  for  Him.  Thank 
God,  we  are  slowly  learning  the  lesson  that  the  work 
and  not  the  worker  is  of  importance,  that  only  when 
self  is  forgotten  in  the  magnitude  of  the  task,  and 
trivialities  are  given  their  own  place,  can  the  real  work 
of  the  world  be  accomplished. 

Disappointed  in  his  attempts  in  the  south  and  west, 
Augustine  turned  toward  the  kingdom  of  the  East 
Saxons,  which  was  tributary  to  Kent.  Mellitus,  one 
of  four  men  recently  sent  from  Rome  to  the  mission 
in  Canterbury,  was  consecrated  bishop  and  sent  to 
preach  to  the  pagan  metropolis  of  Londinium.  A  sec- 
ond mission  was  established  among  the  western  Jutes 
at  the  present  Rochester.  This  was  in  604,  and  not 
long  after — the  year  is  uncertain — on  the  twenty-sixth 
of  May  "  the  Apostle  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  "  was  called 


THE  CONVERSION  OF  KENT  105 

to  the  reward  of  his  labours,  and  buried  near  the  un- 
finished church  of  his  monastery;  but  not  until  he  had 
seen  the  gospel  willingly  and  gladly  accepted  by  the 
king  and  people  of  Kent,  who  were  of  a  truth  a  free 
folk, 

"  Englishmen, 
Not  to  be  forced,  but  ready  to  be  fair." 


Good  King  ^thelberht  lived  many  years  after  the 
death  of  Augustine  and  to  the  end  gave  his  sympathy 
and  support  to  the  ministers  of  Christ  who  succeeded 
Augustine  in  the  care  of  the  Kentish  Church.  Ead- 
bald,  his  son,  however,  would  seem  to  have  cared  little 
for  the  Christian  faith,  and  soon  after  ^thelberht's 
death  relapsed  into  paganism,  with  that  wonderful  in- 
fluence which  every  English  prince  of  those  early  days 
possessed  carrying  his  thegns  with  him  into  the  old 
idolatry.  There  is  perhaps  an  explanation  for  this 
temporary  apostasy  of  king  and  court  in  the  waning 
power  of  Kent.  Bede  places  ^thelberht  among  the 
four  great  Bretwaldas,  exercising  lordship  over  all  the 
provinces  south  of  the  Humber.  In  the  last  years  of 
his  life,  the  king  had  lost  much  of  this  prestige,  and 
the  ambitious  prince,  his  son,  would  see,  in  the  adop- 
tion of  a  faith  unacceptable  to  these  under-nations,  a 
cause  of  his  father's  reverses.  Christianity  was  placed 
under  ban,  and  Justus  and  Mellitus  crossed  into  Gaul. 
Laurentius,  the  archbishop,  was  about  to  follow,  when, 
with  true  Italian  ingenuity,  he  went  to  the  prince  and 
showed  him  the  stripes  which,  he  said,  he  had  received 
from  the  blessed  Peter  in  punishment  for  deserting  his 
post  of  duty,  as,  on  the  preceding  night,  he  had  lain 
before  the  altar  of  the  Church  of  St.  Peter  and  St. 


106   THE  FOUNDER  OF  CANTERBURY 

Paul,  "pouring  forth  many  prayers  for  the  state  of 
the  Church." 

"  Hast  thou,"  the  Apostle  had  said,  "  forgotten  my 
example,  who,  for  the  sake  of  those  little  ones,  whom 
Christ  commended  to  me  in  token  of  His  affection, 
underwent  at  the  hands  of  infidels  and  enemies  of 
Christ,  bonds,  stripes,  imprisonment,  afflictions,  and 
lastly,  death  itself,  even  the  death  of  the  cross,  that 
I  might  at  last  be  crowned  with  Him  ? " 

Little  as  we  may  approve  such  deception  on  the  part 
of  the  missionary,  the  results  were  all  that  Laurentius 
had  hoped.  Eadbald,  when  he  saw  what  the  bishop 
had  suffered  for  his  sake,  was  touched  and  afraid,  and 
made  haste  to  renounce  his  heathen  gods  and  accept 
for  himself  and  for  his  people,  the  religion  of  the 
Christ.  Once  again,  and  finally,  the  Christian  Church 
was  established  in  the  kingdom  of  the  Jutes, 


X 


A  ROMAN  BISHOP  AND  A 
NORTHUMBRIAN  KING 

Paulinus  and  Eadwine 

"  Woden  falls,  and  Thor 
Is  overturned  ;  the  mace,  in  battle  heaved 
(So  might  they  dream)  till  victory  was  achieved, 
Drops,  and  the  god  himself  is  seen  no  more. 
Temple  and  altar  sink,  to  hide  their  shame 
Amid  oblivious  weeds.     '  O,  come  to  me, 
Ye  heavy  laden  ! '  such  the  inviting  voice 
Heard  near  fresh  streams  ;  and  thousands,  who  rejoice 
In  the  new  right,  the  pledge  of  sanctity, 
Shall,  by  regenerate  life,  the  promise  claim." 

—  Wordsworth,  "  Ecclesiastical  Sonnets." 

HEAVY  darkness  rested  upon  the  low  wooden 
palace  where  the  East  Anglian  king  Rsedwald 
was  holding  his  court.  Beyond  an  irregular 
and  indistinct  line  of  shadowy  buildings  the  long, 
angry  surges  of  the  North  Sea  were  breaking  with  a 
dull  roar  upon  a  defenceless  coast,  while  away  to  the 
west  the  level  fenland  stretched  on  and  on  in  an  un- 
ending and  wearisome  expanse.  Through  the  open 
doors  of  the  king's  banqueting-hall,  where  that  night 
Raedwald  had  entertained  strange  guests  from  the 
north,  the  flare  of  torches  streamed  forth  upon  the 
blackness  of  the  night,  intensifying  the  gloom  which 
enshrouded  a  silent  figure  seated  on  a  stone  bench  just 
outside  the  gateway  leading  to  the  hall.     The  man's 

107 


108  A  ROMAN  BISHOP 

head  was  buried  in  his  hands  in  an  attitude  of  troubled 
thought,  and  so  motionless  he  sat  that  he  seemed  a 
figure  carved  from  the  solid  stone  which  formed  his 
seat.  Borne  on  the  night  wind  across  desolate  wastes 
came  the  melancholy  cry  of  the  wild  fowl,  but  he 
heeded  it  not.  Behind  him  one  by  one  the  lights  went 
out  in  the  palace,  and  the  noise  died  away  in  the  serv- 
ants' quarters,  but  the  bowed  figure  did  not  stir. 

When  he  had  sat  thus  until  the  chill  mist  which  pre- 
cedes the  dawn  had  crept  slowly  about  the  hall  and 
hidden  even  the  shadowy  outlines  of  the  adjacent 
buildings,  a  tall  form  approached  from  out  the  dark- 
ness and  in  a  low  tone  addressed  the  silent  man. 

"What  doest  thou  here?"  the  newcomer  asked, 
"  while  other  men  sleep?  " 

Slowly  the  bent  head  was  raised  and  the  square 
shoulders  thrown  back  with  a  princely  haughtiness  ap- 
parent even  in  the  dim  light. 

"  And  why  carest  thou  where  I  spend  the  hours  of 
the  night  time  ?  "  The  tone  in  which  the  words  were 
uttered  matched  the  man's  princely  bearing,  but  the 
stranger  was  not  awed. 

"Think  not,"  the  other  made  reply,  "that  I  am 
ignorant  of  thy  trouble.  I  know,  Eadwine,  thou 
exiled  prince  of  Northumbria,  that  this  night  men 
from  the  usurper's  kingdom  have  sought  to  cut  off  thy 
last  place  of  refuge,  and  have  brought  large  promises 
from  the  warlike  ^thel  frith  to  win  Raedwald's  con- 
sent to  thy  assassination.  I  know,  too,  the  answer, 
worthy  of  the  great  Ella's  son,  which  thou  gavest  thy 
friend  when  he  begged  thee  to  flee  for  thy  life,  and 
how  thou  didst  refuse  to  be  the  first  to  break  the  bond 
existing  between  thyself  and  thy  royal  host." 

"  Thou  hast  spoken  truly,"  Eadwine  returned.     "  I 


PAULINUS  AND  EADWINE  109 

will  not  flee  from  one  who  has  promised  to  defend  me. 
and,  besides,  there  is  no  other  refuge  open  to  me." 

"  But  if  one  came  to  thee  with  the  assurance  of  thy 
safety  and  a  promise  of  thy  return  to  thy  father's 
kingdom  and  thine,  what  wouldst  thou  do  for  such  a 
one?" 

"  My  gratitude  should  match  his  kindness,"  was  the 
quick  response. 

"  And  if  he  who  promised  these  things  should  tell 
thee  of  a  better  way  than  any  thy  ancestors  or  kins- 
folk ever  heard  of,  wouldst  thou  follow  his  teach- 
ings?" 

"  In  very  truth  I  would,"  the  exiled  prince  replied. 

Then  as  the  two  men  stood  solemnly  facing  each 
other  in  the  chill  grey  dawn,  the  stranger  raised  his 
right  hand  and,  placing  it  impressively  upon  Eadwine's 
brow,  he  said, 

"  When  this  sign  shall  be  given  thee,  remember  our 
discourse  and  delay  not  to  fulfil  thy  promise." 

And  with  these  words  the  stranger  vanished  in  the 
gloom  as  mysteriously  as  he  had  come. 

•  •••••••• 

An  April  sun  is  flooding  the  level  valley  of  the  Idle 
with  its  warm  rays  and  darting  gleams  of  fiery  light 
from  the  helmets  and  shields  and  battle-axes  of  two 
hostile  hosts  met  in  deadly  conflict  by  the  peaceful 
waters  of  the  little  stream,  where  the  birds  have  sung 
and  the  flowers  have  bloomed  undisturbed  since  the 
days  when  Roman  legions  crossed  these  fords.  Un- 
mindful of  the  joy  of  the  budding  springtime  which 
Eostre,  the  shining  goddess,  is  lavishing  about  them, 
these  "  battle-brave "  Teutons,  over  whose  heads 
stream  the  rival  banners  of  ^thelfrith  of  Northum- 
bria  and  Rsedwald  of  East  Anglia  are  wielding  their 


110  A  ROMAN  BISHOP 

heavy  weapons  with  the  fierce  fur}^  of  their  untrained 
race,  while  in  the  thickest  of  the  strife  the  flash  of 
gold-gleaming  helmet  and  jewelled  mail  tell  where 
the  banished  Deiran  ^theling  forever  meets  and  rolls 
back  the  tide  of  the  advancing  foe  by  the  strength  of 
his  own  princely  leadership.  For  the  words  of  the 
stranger  have  proved  sooth  and,  admonished  by  his 
fearless  wife,  Raedwald  has  sent  back  to  the  Prince  of 
Northumbria  a  haughty  refusal  to  sacrifice  his  guest, 
and  to-day  the  warrior  thegns  of  the  two  great  heathen 
kings  are  battling  for  the  fate  of  Northumbria's 
throne.  Fight  valiantly,  O  exiled  son  of  the  great 
^lla,  for  thou  boldest  the  key  which  shall  unlock  the 
gateway  to  the  entrance  of  the  truth  among  thy  north- 
ern hills  and  wolds,  and  if  thou  fail  this  day  to  win 
back  thy  kingdom,  weary  years  must  yet  go  by  before 
the  Christ  shall  be  preached  in  the  home  of  the  Deiran 
slave-lads. 

Eight  years  had  passed  since  the  waters  of  the  Idle 
were  darkened  with  the  gore  of  the  defeated  Nor- 
thumbrian hosts,  and  Eadwine  had  long  sat  upon  the 
throne  of  his  fathers.  With  the  original  Deira,  over 
which  ^lla  ruled,  had  been  united  the  northern  king- 
dom of  Bernicia,  and  this  greater  Northumbria  was  to 
become,  under  Eadwine's  wise  and  valiant  leadership, 
the  greatest  of  the  English  principalities,  while  as 
Bretwalda,  or  overlord,  the  new  king  would  eventually 
exercise  authority  from  Eadwinesborough  on  the 
Forth  to  the  country  of  the  West  Saxons  in  the  south. 
Meanwhile  the  worthy  king  sought  a  helpmeet  to  share 
his  royal  cares  and,  remembering  the  former  influence 
of  the  Kentish  court,  and  having  perhaps  heard,  even 
in  the  far  north,  of  the  beauty  and  wisdom  of  ^thel- 


PAULINUS  AND  EADWINE  111 

biirh,  the  Princess  Tata,  as  she  was  familiarly  called, 
sent  ambassadors  to  Eadbald  of  Kent  asking  the  hand 
of  the  king's  sister  in  marriage.  Eadbald  answered 
that  he  could  not  give  his  sister  in  marriage  to  a 
heathen  prince.  The  Northumbrian  king,  however, 
seems  to  have  been  as  determined  in  his  quest  for  a 
wife  as  he  had  been  in  his  quest  for  a  kingdom. 
Promptly  the  envoys  reappeared  at  Canterbury  with 
assurances  from  their  king  that,  were  the  Princess 
^thelburh  permitted  to  become  his  queen,  he  would 
allow  her  and  all  her  attendants  freely  to  follow  the 
worship  of  their  God.  And  so  on  a  July  day,  twenty- 
eight  years  after  the  landing  of  the  first  missionaries 
on  Thanet,  a  successor  of  Augustine  poured  the  oil 
of  consecration  upon  the  head  of  one  Paulinus,  setting 
him  apart  to  the  solemn  task  of  Christianizing  the 
great  heathen  kingdom  of  Northumbria.  For  though 
the  tall,  spare  man  who  accompanied  the  royal  party 
to  Ead wine's  capital  came  nominally  as  the  chaplain  of 
the  future  queen,  yet  the  fires  of  missionary  zeal 
burned  in  the  deepset  eyes,  and  the  noble  prince,  his 
host,  would  yet  have  cause  to  rejoice  in  the  day  when 
the  minister  of  ^thelburh's  faith  entered  the  gates  of 
Eboracum.^ 

On  an  April  day  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  626  the 
Northumbrian  king  was  holding  court  in  one  of  his 
country  homes  on  the  picturesque  shores  of  the  Der- 
went,  in  central  England.  The  extraordinary  suc- 
cesses which  had  followed  the  return  of  the  prince  to 
the  dominions  from  which  he  had  been  driven  when 
only  three  years  old, — his  victories  over  the  Britons  of 
the  west  and  north,  his  supremacy  over  the  English  of 
Mid-Britain,    together   with   his   alliance   with    Kent 

»York. 


U2  A  ROMAN  BISHOP 

through  his  marriage  with  yEthelburh, — had  naturally 
aroused  fear  and  jealousy  among  the  still  unconquered 
Saxon  kingdoms.  As  a  protest  against  his  farther  ad- 
vance Cwichelm,  a  prince  of  the  West  Saxons,  had 
sent  ambassadors  to  Eadwine,  by  whom  the  envoys 
were  being  received  with  all  the  state  befitting  the 
court  of  the  great  Bretwalda.  Fair  and  peaceful  were 
the  words  of  Eumer  as  he  pleaded  the  cause  of  the 
southern  people  from  whom  he  had  come,  when  sud- 
denly the  quick  flash  of  a  dagger  told  the  real  purpose 
of  the  envoy's  visit,  and  the  empire  of  the  north  might 
have  fallen  with  its  leader  but  for  the  heroism  of 
Lilla,  one  of  the  king's  faithful  thegns.  Eadwine's 
gratitude  for  so  unexpected  a  danger  and  deliverance 
was  increased  that  night  by  the  advent  of  a  daughter, 
the  little  princess  Eanflsed,  and  his  softened  mood  gave 
the  zealous  Italian  missionary  the  opening  for  which 
he  had  been  waiting.  With  the  earnestness  of  his 
southern  nature,  Paulinus  seems  to  have  been  able  to 
convince  the  king  that  not  his  Teutonic  gods  but  the 
one  Lord  of  all  had  sent  him  the  double  blessing  of 
his  wonderful  day.  At  least,  Eadwine  gave  the  baby 
princess  to  Paulinus  for  baptism  and  promised  that, 
were  he  allowed  victory  over  his  enemies,  the  West 
Saxons,  he  would  listen  to  the  new  teaching. 

Long  and  weary  days  those  must  have  been  which 
the  Roman  missionary  and  the  Christian  queen  had 
spent  since  their  coming  to  Eadwine's  court.  Not  in  all 
that  northern  kingdom  was  there  a  church  of  the  living 
God,  and  so  long  as  Eadwine  remained  unconverted, 
the  preaching  of  Paulinus  would  have  little  effect  upon 
this  pagan  folk.  Yet  up  to  this  Easter  season  neither 
the  exhortations  of  the  zealous  Italian  nor  the  tender 
pleadings  of  the  gentle  ^Ethelburh  had  sufficed  to  turn 


PAULINUS  AND  EADWINE  113 

the  king's  thought  to  the  Christ  whose  servants  they 
were.  Now,  at  last,  it  is  true,  Eadwine  seemed  to 
have  opened  his  heart  to  an  entrance  of  the  truth,  but 
would  God  give  him  victory  over  his  foes,  or  would 
Eadwine  remember  his  vow  in  the  pride  of  greater 
conquests?  Very  anxiously  these  two  must  have 
waited  for  the  slow  coming  of  news  from  the  battle- 
field, and  very  grievous  must  have  been  their  disap- 
pointment when  the  king  returned  from  slaying  and 
burning  among  his  subjugated  enemies  of  the  south 
and,  while  listening  thoughtfully  to  the  words  of 
Paulinus,  nevertheless  allowed  the  days  and  weeks  and 
months  to  slip  away  without  accepting  for  himself  the 
leadership  of  the  Christ.  And  in  truth  it  was  not  a 
step  for  a  man  in  Eadwine's  position  to  take  without 
careful  consideration.  Proud  of  his  royal  ancestry, 
prouder  yet  of  his  own  splendid  conquests,  ruler  of 
dominions  which  stretched  from  the  Forth  to  the 
Channel  and,  in  the  north  at  least,  from  eastern  to 
western  sea,  a  Teuton  of  the  Teutons,  could  he  bring 
himself  to  follow  worthily  One  whose  service  de- 
manded a  spirit  of  forgiveness  unknown  to  the  tra- 
ditions of  his  race?  Yet  with  all  their  haughty 
strength  these  fierce  warriors,  ancestors  of  a  people 
mighty  in  their  moral  and  spiritual  conquests,  pos- 
sessed a  sense  of  honour  and  fair  dealing  which,  be- 
queathed to  their  descendants,  we  may  thank  God, 
has  not  departed  from  the  two  great  nations  which 
speak  the  mother  tongue  of  the  Saxons.  For  hours  at 
a  time,  says  Bede,  the  king  would  sit  in  moody  silence, 
thinking,  thinking,  forever  thinking.  He  had  given 
up  the  old  religion,  in  which  he  could  no  longer  be- 
lieve, and  doubtless  his  heart  told  him  that  the  way 
of  the  Christ  was  the  way  of  life,  but  he  was  not  yet 


114  A  ROMAN  BISHOP 

ready  to  declare  himself  openly  a  Christian.  Long 
councils  he  held  with  the  wisest  of  his  warriors; 
Paulinus  and  ^thelburh  pleaded;  but  still  the  proud 
Bretwalda  hesitated.  At  last,  one  day  when  the  new 
life  of  the  springtide  was  casting  its  magic  beauty  over 
the  reviving  earth,  Paulinus  approached  Eadwine  as 
he  sat  musing  upon  these  great  mysteries,  and  quietly 
laying  his  hand  upon  the  king's  head, 

"  Rememberest  thou  this  sign  ?  "  he  asked. 

Like  Christian's  burden  at  the  cross,  all  Eadwine's 
doubts  and  hesitations  fell  from  him  when  he  thought 
of  his  promise  to  the  stranger  guest  who  had  brought 
him  that  night  of  the  long  ago  prophecy  of  deliverance 
and  a  kingdom.  What  he  had  not  been  willing  to  do 
for  the  salvation  of  his  own  soul  he  was  now  all  eager- 
ness to  do  out  of  pure  gratitude,  and  in  the  keeping 
of  the  solemn  vow  he  had  made  in  his  helplessness. 
And  so,  trembling  as  only  a  strong  soul  can  tremble 
under  the  influence  of  a  great  decision,  the  powerful 
Bretwalda  promised  to  be  immediately  baptized  with 
all  his  house. 

In  accordance  with  the  customs  of  his  people,  Ead- 
wine assembled  his  ealdormen  in  a  conference  not  far 
from  the  heathen  temple  of  his  ancestors  at  Good- 
manham,  beyond  York.  A  strange  picture  this  half- 
barbaric  assembly  must  have  presented  as  they  met  to 
discuss  the  mysteries  of  life  and  of  death.  For  these 
stalwart  warriors,  dwelling  among  the  mists  and  snows 
of  a  northern  clime,  often  unruly  in  their  passions, 
were,  after  all,  a  serious  folk  at  heart,  to  whom  life 
was  a  very  real  thing,  and  doubtless  many  of  them  had 
long  before  become  dissatisfied  with  the  superstitions 
of  the  earlier  days. 

When  the  king  had  arrived,  preceded  by  his  stand- 


PAULINUS  AND  EADWINE  115 

ard-bearer  and  the  tufted  spear  or  tufa,  which  recalled 
the  authority  of  the  old-time  Roman  emperor,  he  called 
upon  those  present  to  give  in  turn  their  opinion  of  the 
religion  with  which  this  dark-haired  man  from  the 
south  asked  them  to  replace  the  worship  of  the  great 
Woden.  Then,  as  now,  there  seem  to  have  been  two 
distinct  conceptions  of  the  purpose  of  religious  faith 
and  practice.  The  first  and  less  worthy  of  these  was 
represented  by  the  pagan  priest  Coifi. 

"  Long  and  faithfully,  O  King,  have  I  served  the 
gods  of  our  fathers,"  he  said,  "  and  they  have  given 
me  no  help  in  gaining  advancement.  If,  therefore, 
the  new  faith  shall  present  a  way  to  better  things,  we 
will  embrace  it  without  delay." 

But,  when  Coifi  had  finished,  an  aged  ealdorman, 
whose  face  must  have  reflected  the  wistful  longings  of 
a  soul  which  hungered  after  a  knowledge  of  the  things 
of  the  spirit,  rose  and,  with  a  mystic  beauty  of  lan- 
guage born  of  the  age  in  which  he  lived,  addressed 
his  companions. 

"  So  methinks,  O  King,  is  the  life  of  man  on  earth, 
as  if,  while  you  and  your  nobles  are  feasting  on  a  win- 
ter's night,  with  the  fire  blazing  in  the  midst  of  your 
hall,  and  the  rain  and  storm  raging  outside,  a  sparrow 
should  fly  into  the  hall  by  one  door  and  fly  out  by  an- 
other. For  the  moment  that  he  is  inside  he  is  in 
warmth  and  shelter,  and  then  again  he  goes  out  into 
the  wintry  weather  and  is  seen  no  more.  So,  for  a 
short  space  man's  life  is  before  our  eyes,  but  of  what 
is  before  or  what  follows  it,  we  know  nothing.  If, 
then,  this  new  teaching  can  enlighten  us  as  to  these 
things,  by  all  means  let  us  hearken  to  it."  ^ 

*Bede  II,  13.     Translation  in  Hunt's  "  English  Churcli  from 
Its  Foundation  to  the  Norman  Conquest." 


116  A  ROIVIAN  BISHOP 

The  words  of  the  noble-minded  thegn  seemed  to 
touch  a  common  chord  in  the  hearts  of  these  northern 
warriors,  and  one  and  another  expressed  approval  of 
a  faith  which  offered  an  explanation  of  the  mysterious 
Beyond.  At  last  Coifi,  perhaps  half  ashamed  of  his 
earlier  speech,  at  least  broad-minded  enough  to  listen 
to  the  priest  of  a  rival  religion,  suggested  that  Pau- 
linus  should  expound  at  this  time  the  principles  of  the 
Christian  faith.  After  ten  years  of  patient  waiting, 
the  missionary  had  gained  an  audience  and,  in  the 
presence  of  the  king  and  his  court,  preached  Jesus 
Christ,  the  Redeemer  of  the  world  and  the  mes- 
senger of  the  one  true  God,  to  this  pagan  folk  for 
whom  he  had  so  long  prayed.  And  so  the  good  work 
was  begun  and  Coifi  himself  rode  to  the  temple  of  the 
old  faith  and,  in  the  presence  of  all  the  wondering  folk 
from  the  surrounding  villages,  cast  a  spear  against  its 
walls  and  commanded  the  entire  precincts  to  be  de- 
stroyed by  fire. 

In  Eadwine's  capital,  where  to-day  stands  the  noble 
minster  of  St.  Peter,  with  its  magnificent  fagade  and 
old  stained  glass,  the  Northumbrian  king  built  a  little 
wooden  church,  in  which,  on  Easter  eve,  627,  just  a 
year  after  his  remarkable  deliverance  and  his  promise 
to  investigate  the  new  faith,  Eadwine  and  many  of 
his  household  went  down  into  the  baptismal  waters  to 
be  born  again  to  a  new  life.  Among  those  who  that 
day  received  the  rite  was  Hilda,  the  grandniece  of 
Eadwine,  and  future  abbess  of  Whitby,  who  was 
destined  to  exert  no  inconsiderable  influence  upon  the 
early  history  of  the  church  in  England.^ 

His  decision  once  formed,  Eadwine  was  as  zealous 
for  the  spread  of  Christianity  as  ^thelberht  had  been 

1  Appendix  I,  note  3. 


PAULINUS  AND  EADWINE  117 

in  Kent,  and  in  the  campaign  of  active  missionary  ef- 
fort upon  which  PauHnus  and  his  efficient  helper, 
James,  now  entered  in  both  Deira  and  Bernicia,  these 
messengers  of  good  tidings,  Hke  Augustine  and  Aidan, 
had  the  protection  and  support  of  the  country's  ruler. 
Very  fortunate  indeed  were  the  first  English  missiona- 
ries in  the  fair-minded  investigations  which  those 
strong  Anglo-Saxon  kings  were  willing  to  make  of 
the  new  religion  offered  to  their  people,  and  in  the 
practical  grasp  of  its  teachings  which,  within  sixty 
years  of  the  first  entrance  of  the  word  among  these 
warring  pagan  peoples,  resulted  practically  in  driving 
out  idol  worship  from  the  island  and  in  opening  a  way 
for  the  rapid  introduction  of  Christian  schools  and 
churches,  with  all  the  beneficent  effects  which  Chris- 
tian education  must  ever  bring  to  a  people  open  to  the 
reception  of  truth. 

Sometimes  with  only  his  fellow  labourers,  more 
often  probably  in  the  company  of  the  king,  who  rarely 
remained  long  in  his  central  capital  of  York,  Paulinus 
went  about  Deira  preaching  the  gospel  to  the  multi- 
tudes which  flocked  eagerly  to  hear  this  new  doctrine 
which  king  and  priesthood  had  adopted.  Often  the 
wooded  banks  of  the  Swale  looked  down  upon  the 
baptism  of  groups  of  new  converts  who  had  turned 
from  their  idols  to  the  worship  of  the  one  God.  Once 
at  least  Paulinus  went  on  a  journey  to  Bernicia,  re- 
maining at  the  king's  country-seat  of  Adgefrin  thirty- 
six  days,  instructing  the  people  who  resorted  thither 
"  from  all  the  villages  and  places,  in  Christ's  saving 
word;  and  when  they  were  instructed,  he  washed  them 
with  the  water  of  absolution  in  the  river  Glen,  which 
is  close  by."  ^ 

iBede  II,  14. 


118  A  ROMAN  BISHOP 

At  another  time  he  made  a  preaching  tour  in  Lindis- 
wara,  south  of  the  Humber,  and  in  the  "  Ecclesiastical 
History  "  we  are  told  that  an  old  man  of  the  district 
related  to  Bede  how  "  he  had  been  baptized  at  noon-day 
by  the  Bishop  Paulinus,  in  the  presence  of  King  Ead- 
wine,  with  a  great  number  of  people,  in  the  river  Trent, 
near  the  city  which  in  the  English  tongue  is  called 
Tiowulfingacsestir."  This  man  described  Paulinus  as 
"  tall  of  stature,  a  little  stooping,  his  hair  black,  his 
visage  thin,  his  nose  slender  and  aquiline,  his  aspect 
both  venerable  and  majestic."  ^  At  this  time  also  the 
reeve  or  governor  of  Lindum  (now  Lincoln),  one 
Blsecca,  was  converted  with  his  whole  house,  and  built 
a  stone  church  in  his  city,  the  forerunner  of  the  present 
cathedral. 

Meanwhile  Eadwine  did  not  forget  the  country  that 
had  sheltered  him  in  his  time  of  need  and  helped  him 
to  recover  his  kingdom.  Rsedwald  was  dead,  it  is 
true,  but  his  son,  who  now  ruled  East  Anglia,  was  the 
friend  of  the  Northumbrian  king,  and  recognized  him 
as  overlord.  This  friendship  Eadwine  used  for  per- 
suading Earpwald  to  embrace  the  Christian  faith,  and 
within  two  years  of  Eadwine's  conversion  the  East 
Anglian  king  was  baptized  and  accepted  Christianity 
for  his  nation.  But  the  old  faith  seems  to  have  been 
strong  in  the  dominion  where  Rsedwald  placed  an  altar 
to  Christ  among  those  to  his  heathen  deities,  and  soon 
after  his  baptism  Earpwald  was  slain  by  a  hostile 
thegn,  and  Woden  and  Thor  once  more  held  sway  in 
this  little  kingdom  by  the  sea.  How  East  Anglia  was 
recovered  to  the  faith  is  related  elsewhere. 

As  we  have  already  seen,  Eadwine  had  built  up  for 
himself  a  more  powerful  realm  than  any  yet  ruled  by 

1  Bede  II.  i6. 


PAULINUS  AND  EADWINE  119 

an  English  king.     Even  as  a  heathen  prince,  he  had 
governed  his  dominions  wisely  and  well,  and  now  that 
he  had  accepted  Christianity,  a  way  seemed  opened  for 
the  entrance  of  the  new  faith  into  all  the  provinces 
over  which  the  Bretwalda  exercised  authority.     Un- 
happily, we  have  no  such  pleasant  ending  for  the  story 
of  the  mission  of  Paulinus  in  the  North.     The  fear 
which  had  caused  Eadwine  to  hesitate  so  long  and  had 
prevented  many  a  heathen  prince  from  accepting  the 
truth  in  which  he  secretly  believed,  was  soon  to  be 
realized  in  the  empire  which  Eadwine  had  established. 
In  that  same  year  of  626  there  had  come  to  the  throne 
of  the  central  kingdom  of  Mercia  a  man  in  middle  life, 
already   known    for   his   warlike   exploits,    who,    for 
the   extension    of   his    dominions    and    through    fear 
of  Ead wine's  supremacy,  was  willing  to  take  upon 
himself  the  leadership  of  the  still  formidable  heathen 
forces.     A  rival  power  had  arisen  of  which  the  great 
Bretwalda  need  take  careful  thought.     Yet,  powerful 
warrior  as  Penda  proved  himself  to  be,  had  Eadwine 
remained  a  worshipper  of  the  old  gods,  the  Northum- 
brian supremacy  would  doubtless  have  had  little  to  fear 
from  the  accession  of  the  Mercian  king.     We  have 
seen,  however,  the  revolt  of  East  Anglia  against  the 
introduction  of  the  new  faith,  and  the  allegiance  of 
the  Middle  English  to  the  heathen  Penda,  all  which 
Eadwine  seems  to  have  allowed  without  the  protest  to 
have  been  expected  from  his  earlier  policy.     The  ad- 
vance of  Penda  in  the  south  now  threatened,  if  it  did 
not  entirely  destroy,  Eadwine's  supremacy  in  Wessex. 
The  return  of  a  Christian  prince  ^  to  East  Anglia  was 
the  signal  for  an  open  struggle  between  Christianity, 
under  Eadwine,  and  the  forces  of  heathenism,  led  by 
^Sigeberht  or  Sigbert. 


120  A  ROMAN  BISHOP 

the  IMercian  king.  Penda  formed  an  alliance  with  the 
British  Csedwalla  and,  on  October  12,  633,  met  the 
armies  of  Northumbria  at  Heathfield,  a  desolate  moor 
to  the  south  of  the  river  Don.  A  bitter  day  it  was 
for  the  Christians  of  Northumbria,  for  Eadwine  was 
slain  upon  the  field  of  battle,  and  Paulinus,  dismayed 
by  the  reviving  heathenism  and  the  ravages  of  Csed- 
walla, fled  to  Kent  with  yEthelburh  and  her  children. 
We  wish  that  it  had  not  been  so,  that  the  man  who  had 
won  so  many  converts  and  had  taught  a  powerful 
prince  the  way  of  life,  having  sent  the  widowed  queen 
in  safety  to  her  childhood's  home,  had  believed  his 
Lord  called  him  to  use  all  the  force  of  his  strong  per- 
sonality to  keep  these  stalwart  warriors  faithful  to  the 
Christ  who  had  suffered  far  worse  persecution  than 
ever  they  should  face.  Perhaps  then  we  should  not 
have  had  to  record  "  the  terrible  year  of  Northum- 
bria." One  bright  spot  there  is  in  the  picture.  In  all 
his  labours  in  the  Deiran  kingdom,  Paulinus  had  been 
aided  by  his  deacon  or  helper,  James,  a  man  of  very 
noble  Christian  character.  So  long  as  Paulinus  re- 
mained in  the  north  the  work  of  the  humble  deacon 
was  overshadowed  by  that  of  his  superior;  but  when 
the  Roman  bishop  fled  in  all  haste  southward,  James 
refused  to  join  the  escaping  party,  but  all  through  the 
terrible  scenes  which  followed  remained  with  those  of 
his  planting  in  the  northern  kingdom,  until  with  the 
coming  of  Oswald,  two  years  later,  the  light  shone 
once  more  over  the  hills  and  valleys  of  Deira. 


XI 
THE  GLORY  OF  THE  NORTH  COUNTRY 

AlDAN   AND   CUTHBERT 

"  God's  saints  are  shining  lights ;  who  stays 
Here  long,  must  passe 
O'er  dark  hills,  and  swift  streams,  and  steep  ways 
As  smooth  as  glasse  ; 
But  these  all  night, 
Like  candles,  shed 
Their  beams,  and  light 
Us  unto  bed, 

"  They  are  indeed  our  pillar-fires 

Seen  as  we  go  ; 

They  are  that  city's  shining  spires 

We  travell  to." 

— Henry  Vaughan. 

CLOSE  to  the  Northumberland  coast,  a  few  miles 
south  of  Berwick,  lies  the  little  island  of  Lin- 
disfarne,  containing  a  small  castle  and  the 
ruins  of  an  eleventh  century  monastery,  which  Scott 
has  made  famous  in  the  stanzas  of  "  Marmion."  Like 
Mont  St.  Michel  in  Brittany,  this  bit  of  historic  ground 
is  only  partially  an  island,  for  twice  a  day  the  ebbing 
sea-waves  leave  broad  stretches  of  wet  sands,  over 
which  it  is  possible  to  cross  on  foot  to  Holy  Isle.  On 
these  few  acres,  which  by  their  seclusion  reminded 
him  of  his  beloved  lona,  the  gentle  Aidan,  as  soon  as 
Oswald  had  restored  order  in  the  north,  founded  a 

121 


122     GLORY  OF  THE  NORTH  COUNTRY 

Christian  school,  from  which  the  story  of  the  Christ 
was  once  more  carried  among  the  hills  and  dales  of 
Northumbria,  this  time  not  by  Roman  missionaries 
from  the  south  but  by  the  untiring  enthusiasm  of 
labourers  trained  in  the  Celtic  church  which  Columba 
had  established  in  Scotland.  The  story  of  the  patient 
efforts  of  these  humble  missionaries  is  one  of  the  most 
interesting  bits  of  England's  early  annals. 

When  ^thelfrith  was  defeated  and  slain  in  that 
last  struggle  to  retain  his  kingdom,  his  sons  found 
refuge  among  the  Picts  of  Scotland.  Oswald,  the 
second  of  these  lads,  had  been  received  at  lona,  and 
there  had  caught  the  vision  of  a  nobler  life  than  any 
his  kinsfolk  had  known.  He  came  back  now  to  his 
native  Bernicia  a  Christian,  and  when  at  Hefenfelth 
he  had  scattered  the  British  under  Csedwalla,  and  had 
established  himself  firmly  on  his  throne,  he  turned  his 
thought  to  the  evangelization  of  his  people.  Very 
naturally  he  decided  to  ask  help  of  these  same  holy 
men  who  had  so  patiently  taught  him  the  way  of  truth 
when  he  came  an  exile  among  them.  His  request  was 
quickly  granted  by  the  disciples  of  the  great  Columba, 
but  before  many  months  had  passed,  the  monk  who 
was  sent  by  them  was  back  again  in  his  island  home, 
declaring  it  impossible  to  teach  so  ungovernable  a  peo- 
ple the  truths  of  Christianity.  But  the  spirit  of  the 
great  missionary  who  had  founded  their  house  was  yet 
strong  among  these  Celtic  brethren,  and  many  must 
have  listened  very  sorrowfully  to  the  disheartening  re- 
port of  their  first  foreign  missionary.  Their  neigh- 
bours, the  Picts,  they  had  come  in  a  measure  to  under- 
stand, and  the  history  of  lona  up  to  that  time  had  been 
the  story  of  continual  strife  with  superstition,  but  con- 
cerning these  strangers   from  beyond  the  seas   who 


AIDAN  AND  CUTHBERT  123 

spoke  another  tongue  and  worshipped  other  gods  they 
knew  but  little.  So  they  debated  long  and  earnestly 
what  course  to  pursue,  and  whether  it  were  wise  to 
send  another  missionary  to  these  unresponsive  English. 
The  problem  was  solved  at  last  by  one  of  their  number 
who,  after  listening  to  the  discussion  quietly  for  some 
time,  rose  and  spoke  with  the  tolerant  and  tactful  spirit 
which  in  all  time  must  characterize  the  successful  win- 
ner of  souls. 

"  Brother,"  he  said,  "  it  seemeth  to  me  that  thou  hast 
been  unduly  hard  upon  these  untaught  hearers,  and 
hast  not  given  them  first,  according  to  the  Apostle's 
precept,  the  milk  of  less  solid  doctrine  until,  gradually 
nurtured  on  -the  Word  of  God,  they  should  have 
strength  enough  to  digest  the  more  perfect  lessons." 

The  debate  ended  with  these  words  of  the  gentle 
Aidan,  for  all  agreed  that  he  should  take  up  the  work 
of  the  returned  bishop,  if  mayhap,  by  patience  and  tact, 
he  might  win  those  whom  more  forceful  methods  had 
failed  to  reach.  So  they  commissioned  him  to  plant 
a  mission  in  Northumbria,  consecrating  him  bishop 
of  all  that  region,  and  sent  him  out  to  his  new  labours, 
accompanied  by  a  small  band  of  fellow-workers. 
Over  against  the  king's  capital  of  Bamborough,  Aidan 
built  his  island  monastery,  a  group  of  simple,  rude 
structures,  provided  with  only  the  bare  necessities  of 
life,  and  surrounded  by  a  little  plot  of  ground,  which 
these  labourers  tilled  for  their  own  livelihood.  For, 
as  we  have  already  intimated,  it  was  a  fixed  principle 
of  the  northern  missionaries  to  take  nothing  from 
those  among  whom  they  laboured,  but  by  a  life  of  self- 
denial  to  prove  to  these  half-credulous  folk  that  they 
had  come  among  them  with  no  other  purpose  than  to 
do  them  good.     And  grandly  did  they  succeed  in  their 


124*     GLORY  OF  THE  NORTH  COUNTRY 

purpose.  From  planting  and  sowing  and  reaping  in 
their  island  home  where,  besides,  they  taught  the  Eng- 
lish youth  whom  they  received  among  them  and 
trained  to  return  as  labourers  to  their  own  people,  they 
went  out  on  long  journeys  among  the  hills  and  valleys 
of  Bernicia  and  Deira,  preaching  the  word  of  life  alike 
to  rich  and  poor,  noble  and  peasant. 

Let  us  try  to  imagine  one  of  these  journeys.  Aidan 
and  a  single  companion  are  starting  out  from  Lindis- 
farne  on  foot,  speaking  little  to  each  other,  but  some- 
times breaking  the  solitude  of  their  meditation  by  im- 
pressively repeating  the  grand  old  Psalms  which  they 
know  by  heart.  Now  they  are  attracted  by  a  serf 
labouring  by  the  wayside,  and  these  servants  of  the 
Christ 

"  Who  followed  the  paths  through  the  mountains 
To  eat  at  the  people's  tryst," 

turn  aside  to  tell  the  wretched  man  of  a  freedom  which 
God  can  give  to  the  soul.  Again,  in  some  rude  home 
where  yet  love  reigns,  a  sick  child  is  comforted  and 
soothed  with  the  few  simple  remedies  which  these  mis- 
sionaries know,  and  the  hearts  of  the  parents  are  thus 
opened  to  the  message  which  the  holy  men  of  God 
bring  them  before  they  leave  the  poor  hut.  Fording 
streams  and  travelling  steep  paths,  they  come  at  length 
to  a  little  wattled  church,  where  no  services  have  been 
held  for  weeks  or  months,  and  there  they  preach  to  a 
congregation  filling  every  inch  of  space.  How  eagerly 
do  these  people  listen  to  the  simple  words  which  they 
can  understand  and  which  will  gradually  transform 
their  lives.  Many  new  converts  believe  and  are  bap- 
tized in  the  neighbouring  stream,  among  them  per- 
haps  some  nobleman,   who  entertains  these   simple- 


AIDAN  AND  CUTHBERT  125 

hearted  missionaries  in  his  hall  and  at  their  solicitation 
grants  a  slave  lad  freedom  that  he  may  go  back  with 
them  to  Lindisfarne  and  become  a  missionary  labourer, 
after  his  years  of  training  are  over.  And  then,  still 
on  foot  and  without  other  reward  for  their  services 
than  the  joy  that  comes  from  ministering  to  needy 
souls  in  their  Master's  name,  these  self-denying  mis- 
sionaries return  to  study  and  teaching  and  humble 
labour  on  Holy  Isle. 

No  sovereign  was  ever  more  zealous  for  the  religious 
welfare  of  his  people  than  was  King  Oswald.  The 
Venerable  Bede,  himself  a  Northumbrian,  writing  less 
than  a  hundred  years  after  these  events  took  place, 
thus  describes  the  work  of  Oswald  and  Aidan : 

"  The  king  also  humbly  and  willingly  in  all  things 
giving  ear  to  his  admonitions,  industriously  applied 
himself  to  build  up  and  extend  the  Church  of  Christ 
in  his  kingdom;  wherein,  when  the  bishop,  who  was 
not  perfectly  skilled  in  the  English  tongue,  preached 
the  Gospel,  it  was  a  fair  sight  to  see  the  king  himself 
interpreting  the  Word  of  God  to  his  ealdormen  and 
thegns,'  for  he  had  thoroughly  learned  the  language 
of  the  Scots  during  his  long  banishment.  From  that 
time  many  came  daily  into  Britain  from  the  country 
of  the  Scots,  and  with  great  devotion  preached  the 
Word  to  those  provinces  of  the  English  over  which 
King  Oswald  reigned."  ^ 

But  heathenism  was  not  yet  dead  and  the  relentless 
Penda  soon  formed  a  new  alliance  with  the  Welsh  and 
at  Maserfelth,  on  August  5,  642,  defeated  and  slew  the 
good  Northumbrian  king.  Again  the  kingdoms  were 
divided,  Oswiu,  a  brother  of  Oswald,  reigning  in  Ber- 

1  Bede  III,  3- 

2  This  was  during  the  earlier  years  of  Aidan's  ministry. 


126     GLORY  OF  THE  NORTH  COUNTRY 

nicia  and  Oswini  in  Deira.  Thirteen  years  longer  the 
heathen  Penda  dominated  Central  England.  A  second 
great  battle,  fought  between  pagan  and  Christian  Eng- 
land in  655,  resulted  in  the  death  of  the  Mercian  king 
and  the  end,  for  a  time  at  least,  of  Mercian  supremacy. 
Meanwhile  Oswiu,  king  of  the  Bernicians,  caused 
Oswini  to  be  treacherously  murdered,  and  joined  Deira 
to  Bernicia.  The  beauty  of  the  Deiran  king's  charac- 
ter had  been  Aidan's  joy  and  pride,  and  the  aged  mis- 
sionary survived  his  sovereign  only  a  few  days,  passing 
to  his  reward  on  August  31,  651. 

Bede's  testimony  to  Aidan's  character  is  of  special 
weight,  because  he  stood  so  near  the  great  missionary 
in  point  of  time  and,  as  an  ardent  adherent  of  the 
Roman  ritual,  believed  the  Celtic  church  gravely  in 
error. 

"  I  have  written,"  he  says,  "  concerning  the  charac- 
ter and  works  of  the  aforesaid  Aidan,  in  no  way  com- 
mending or  approving  his  lack  of  wisdom  with  regard 
to  the  observance  of  Easter;  nay,  heartily  detesting  it; 
but,  like  an  impartial  historian,  unreservedly  relating 
what  was  done  by  or  through  him,  and  commending 
such  things  as  are  praiseworthy  in  his  actions,  to  wit, 
his  love  of  peace  and  charity;  of  continence  and  hu- 
mility; his  mind  superior  to  anger  and  avarice,  and 
despising  pride  and  vainglory;  his  industry  in  keeping 
and  teaching  the  Divine  commandments,  his  power  of 
study  and  keeping  vigil;  his  priestly  authority  in  re- 
proving the  haughty  and  powerful,  and  at  the  same 
time  his  tenderness  in  comforting  the  afflicted  and  re- 
lieving and  defending  the  poor.  To  be  brief,  so  far 
as  I  have  learned  from  those  that  knew  him,  he  took 
care  to  neglect  none  of  those  things  which  he  found  in 
the  gospels  and  the  writings  of  apostles  and  prophets. 


AIDAN  AND  CUTHBERT  127 

but  to  the  utmost  of  his  power  endeavoured  to  fulfil 
them  all  in  his  deeds."  ^ 

Eleven  centuries  later  another  North  Country  writer 
repeated  in  even  stronger  phrase  the  worth  of  the  great 
missionary. 

"  In  the  simple,  wise,  sympathetic,  large-hearted, 
saintly  Aidan,  to  whom  Northumbria  owes  its  conver- 
sion, we  have  an  evangelist  of  the  purest  and  noblest 
t5^pe.  Hardly  a  single  incident  is  recorded  of  him, 
which  we  could  wish  untrue;  and  there  are  very  few 
Christian  saints  and  heroes  in  any  age,  of  whom  so 
much  can  be  said."  ^ 

Meanwhile,  on  the  Scottish  hills  of  Lammermuir, 
an  imaginative  shepherd  lad  was  learning,  as  Patricius 
had  learned,  in  his  lonely  watches  in  Ireland,  to  hear 
the  call  of  God  in  the  night  wind  that  swept  the  soli- 
tary heights  and  to  read  His  word  in  the  stars  which 
nightly  looked  down  upon  him  and  his  sleeping  flocks. 
He  had  been  a  merry  lad  in  his  childhood's  home  in 
Wrangholm,  delighting  in  all  the  outdoor  sports  of 
that  early  time  and  developing  a  splendid  physical 
strength  for  his  long  life  of  hardship.  But  the  mys- 
tery of  the  hills  gradually  had  its  way  with  Cuthbert, 
and  little  by  little  he  came  to  live  with  dreams  and 
visions,  but  with  visions  so  beautiful  and  dreams  so 
ideal  that  his  life  has  been  remembered  all  the  cen- 
turies since  with  love  and  reverence  throughout  the 
North  Country. 

One  of  these  visions  led  Cuthbert  to  dedicate  his  life 
to  the  service  of  God.  It  was  at  the  time  of  Aidan's 
death  that  the  lonely  watcher  on  the  hills  beheld  a 

iBede  III,  17. 

2  Lightfoot,  "  Leaders  in  the  Northern  Church." 


128     GLORY  OF  THE  NORTH  COUNTRY 

shower  of  falling  stars  sinking  into  the  sea,  and,  learn- 
ing soon  afterward  of  the  good  man's  passing,  inter- 
preted this  strange  glory  as  the  descent  of  angels  sent 
to  bear  the  soul  of  Aidan  heavenward.  So  great  an 
impression  was  made  upon  the  shepherd  youth  that  he 
left  his  calling  and  entered  the  monastery  of  Mailros 
or  Melrose,  which  stood  perhaps  a  mile  distant  from 
the  beautiful  ruins  which  attract  the  traveller  to  the 
modern  town. 

When  his  education  was  completed,  Cuthbert  re- 
mained in  the  monastery  as  a  teacher.  But  his  heart 
was  touched  by  the  ignorance  and  sinfulness  of  a  peo- 
ple not  far  removed  from  their  old  heathen  life,  and 
often  he  visited  the  little  villages  round  about,  teaching 
and  preaching.  So  gentle  and  sincere  he  was  that  he 
exercised  a  wonderful  influence  over  his  hearers,  who, 
at  his  bidding,  gave  up  their  practice  of  spells  and  in- 
cantations and,  above  all,  renounced  their  evil  lives, 
won  by  him  to  the  beauty  of  righteousness.  Often, 
too,  he  made  long  journeys  among  the  remote  places 
of  the  mountains,  where  no  one  else  had  courage  to 
penetrate,  and  healed  and  sympathized  and  preached 
and  baptized.  How  he  must  have  been  beloved  by  this 
simple  folk,  so  ready  to  yield  to  the  kindly  and  wise 
ministrations  of  one  whom  they  quickly  recognized  as 
a  true  friend.  Forbidding  and  unapproachable  they 
may  have  seemed  to  some  who  had  attempted  their 
conversion.  To  Cuthbert,  who  sought  them  because 
he  really  cared,  they  were  as  clay  in  the  hands  of  the 
potter. 

Other  duties,  however,  awaited  the  monk.  Eata, 
Abbot  of  Mailros,  who  had  been  instructed  by  Aidan 
on  Lindisfarne,  was  called  in  660  to  establish  a  Chris- 
tian school  at  Ripon,  in  what  is  now  the  West  Riding 


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AIDAN  AND  CUTHBERT  129 

of  Yorkshire.  Cuthbert's  intense  devotion  to  mission- 
ary efforts  in  the  home  field  led  his  superior  to  choose 
him  as  a  companion  in  his  new  undertaking.  The  dif- 
ferences between  the  English  and  Celtic  churches  be- 
coming more  pronounced,  Abbot  Eata  was  deprived  of 
his  monastery  and,  with  Cuthbert,  returned  to  Mailros. 
Not  long  after,  however,  a  settlement  being  brought 
about  by  the  Synod  at  Whitby,  Eata  was  called  to 
a  new  field  of  usefulness  at  Lindisfarne.  As  prior  of 
the  monastery  of  Aidan's  foundation,  Cuthbert  con- 
tinued the  missionary  work  he  had  loved  at  ]Mailros. 
Over  dreary  wastes  of  moorland,  by  devious  streams, 
among  solitary  mountain  fastnesses,  the  unwearying 
missionary  carried  his  simple  gospel  message  to  a  peo- 
ple whose  thoughts  and  ways  he  understood,  because 
he  had  been  one  of  them.  "  His  patience,  his  humor- 
ous good  sense,  the  sweetness  of  his  look,"  says  an 
English  historian,^  "  told  for  him,  and  not  less  the 
vigorous  frame  which  fitted  the  peasant-preacher  for 
the  hard  life  he  had  chosen."  To  his  strength  of  body 
and  the  simple  intensity  of  his  faith  he  added  the  poetic 
temperament  which  we  have  already  noted  in  his 
spiritual  interpretation  of  the  phenomena  of  nature. 
"  At  one  time,"  we  are  told,  "  a  snowstorm  drove  his 
boat  on  the  coast  of  Fife.  '  The  snow  closes  the  road 
along  the  shore,'  mourned  his  comrade,  '  the  storm 
bars  our  way  over  sea.'  '  There  is  still  the  way  of 
heaven  that  lies  open,'  said  Cuthbert." 

As  the  years  wore  on,  the  love  of  solitude  and 
meditation  more  and  more  took  possession  of  the 
saintly  missionary,  and  at  last  discord  among  the 
members  of  the  community  at  Lindisfarne,  touching 
matters  of  faith  and  ritual,  and  his  own  longing  for 

ij.  R.  Green,  "The  Making  of  England." 


130  GLORY  OF  THE  NORTH  COUNTRY 

a  hermit's  life,  led  Cuthbert  to  withdraw  to  a  barren 
island  not  far  distant  from  Holy  Isle,  where  he  dwelt 
alone  for  many  years,  in  a  rude  cell  shut  in  by  a  mound 
so  high  that  he  could  see  nothing  but  the  heavens 
above  him.  To  understand  this  love  of  isolation  in 
one  of  such  splendid  missionary  achievement  we  must 
think  ourselves  back  into  an  age  as  far  removed  from 
our  own  in  outward  condition  and  in  outlook  upon  life 
as  the  east  is  from  the  west,  an  age  whose  brutality 
sickened  the  Christian  monk  and  made  him  perhaps 
look  too  much  toward  the  heavenly  country,  even  as 
we  of  to-day  sometimes  think  of  it  too  little. 

In  685  Cuthbert  was  recalled  from  his  retreat  on 
Fame  Isle  and  compelled  to  accept  the  bishopric  of 
Lindisfarne,  which  he  held  for  two  years.  Bede  says 
of  him  that  "  he  first  showed  in  his  own  life  what  he 
taught  others  to  do,"  and  that  "  he  thought  it  stood 
in  the  stead  of  prayer  to  afford  the  weak  brethren 
the  help  of  his  exhortation,  knowing  that  He  who  said, 
'  Thou  shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God,'  said  likewise, 
'  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbour.'  "  At  the  end  of 
these  two  years  the  aged  missionary  returned  to  Fame, 
knowing  that  his  end  was  near.  Here  he  died  on  the 
twentieth  of  March,  687,  and  was  buried  in  the  church 
at  Lindisfarne,  from  which  his  body  was  removed  at 
the  coming  of  the  Danes,  to  Chester-le-Street,  and 
later  to  the  site  of  the  present  Durham.  In  this  quiet 
"  hill-fortress,"  apart  from  the  surging  tides  of  human 
life,  in  the  solemn  stillness  he  so  much  loved,  the  great 
missionary-bishop  sleeps  his  last  sleep,  while  day  by 
day  his  message  is  proclaimed  in  every  hamlet  and 
village  of  all  the  North  Country  where  he  lived  and 
laboured. 


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XII 

WHOM  THE  BRITON  HONOURS 
England's  Lesser  Apostles 

"  The  choir  invisible 
Of  those  immortal  dead  who  live  again 
In  minds  made  better  by  their  presence:  live 
In  pulses  stirred  to  generosity, 
In  deeds  of  daring  rectitude,  in  scorn 
Of  miserable  aims  that  end  with  self." 

— George  Eliot. 

WHERE,  in  the  very  heart  of  old  London, 
rises  the  gentle  eminence  of  Ludgate  Hill, 
crowned  by  that  noble  monument  of  Sir 
Christopher  Wren's  genius,  the  cathedral  of  St.  Paul, 
the  second  Christian  mission  in  England  was  estab- 
lished. 

London  was  already  an  historic  town  when  Mellitus 
came  from  Canterbury  to  preach  the  glad  tidings  of 
redemption  through  Christ  to  our  pagan  ancestors. 
Before  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  in  all  proba- 
bility a  British  town  or  village  crowned  the  heights 
overlooking  the  Thames,  or  at  least  a  fortified  retreat 
in  time  of  war  existed  there.  Under  Roman  influ- 
ence Londinium  grew  rapidly,  and  for  nearly  four 
centuries  occupied  a  position  of  dignity  as  one  of  the 
important  provincial  cities  of  the  Empire.  Its  situa- 
tion in  time  attracted  the  Teutonic  invaders  from 
across  the  sea,  who  erected  their  rude  dwellings  by 

131 


132         WHOM  THE  BRITON  HONOURS 

the  side  of  the  stately  ruins  from  which  Roman  and 
Romanized  Celt  had  fled  at  the  coming  of  the  ma- 
rauder. 

Let  us  try  to  see  the  city  as  it  would  appear  to 
Bishop  Mellitus,  newly  come  from  Rome  to  aid  Au- 
gustine in  extending  his  work  beyond  the  boundaries 
of  ^thelberht's  territory,  when,  in  the  year  604,  the 
Roman  missionary  approached  this  East  Saxon  me- 
tropolis, of  which  Bede  could  write  a  century  later 
that  it  had  become  "  the  mart  of  many  nations  resort- 
ing to  it  by  sea  and  land."  The  ruins  of  Roman 
London  still  remained,  brick  buildings,  massive  and 
noble  in  their  day,  but  now  showing  the  result  of 
siege  and  the  distintegrating  effects  of  two  hundred 
years  of  neglect.  From  that  part  of  the  river  shore 
now  fortified  by  London  Tower  the  old  walls  swept 
northward  by  the  Minories  and  Houndsditch  and 
turning  westward,  came  again  to  the  Thames  by  Lud- 
gate,  enclosing  one  of  the  largest  cities  then  existing 
in  Britain.  Many  of  the  villas  outside  the  walls  were 
doubtless  still  standing,  while  contrasting  strongly 
with  this  massive  masoniT',  were  the  low  wooden 
buildings  of  the  usurper,  who  himself  cared  little 
for  the  magnificence  of  Roman  palace  and  basilica. 
To  bring  Rome's  second  great  gift — a  gift  far  greater 
and  grander  than  her  military  and  commercial  power 
had  been — came  this  man,  whose  foot  had  trodden 
the  pavements  of  the  Eternal  City,  and  who  had  ex- 
iled himself  from  her  still  alluring  grandeur  through 
love  for  the  Christ. 

Mellitus,  as  we  have  already  seen,  was  one  of  the 
assistants  whom  Pope  Gregory  had  sent  Augustine 
seven  years  after  the  founding  of  the  Canterbury 
mission.     Another    of    these    labourers,    Justus,    at 


ENGLAND'S  LESSER  APOSTLES        133 

nearly  the  same  time  built  a  church  a  few  miles  west 
of  Canterbury  at  Dorubrevis  or  Rochester,  but  the 
mission  begun  by  Mellitus  in  London  was  the  first 
extension  of  Augustine's  work  outside  ^thelberht's 
immediate  domains.  Even  this  establishment  was 
made  under  Kentish  influence  and  protection,  for  the 
king  of  the  East  Saxons,  Sseberct,  was  the  son  of 
Sledda  and  of  ^thelberht's  sister  Ricula,  and  ruled 
Essex  only  as  under-king.  It  was  at  ^thelberht's 
command  that  the  East  Saxon  king  received  Mellitus 
and  his  helpers,  and  it  was  ^Ethelberht  with  whom 
Bede  credits  the  building  of  the  first  church  on  Lud- 
gate  Hill.  Though  the  Roman  bishop  preached 
among  this  pagan  folk  for  twelve  years,  he  does  not 
seem  to  have  made  a  lasting  impression  upon  his 
warlike  hearers.  Sseberct  was  converted,  it  is  true, 
but  his  family  remained  unmoved  by  Christian 
teaching,  and  by  their  opposition  at  last  compelled 
Mellitus  to  return  to  Kent.  Mellitus  later  became 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  but  he  did  not  return  to 
London,  and  the  East  Saxon  mission  was  not  re- 
opened until  the  preaching  of  Cedd  in  653. 

This  second  labourer  in  Essex  was  one  of  four 
brothers,  all  missionaries,  who  were  of  Northum- 
brian ancestry  and  trained  in  the  Scottish  schools  of 
the  north.  Of  these  Ceadda,  or  St.  Chad,  having 
studied  under  Aidan  and  later  in  Ireland,  became  the 
Apostle  of  the  Mercians,  C^lin  and  Cynibill  were 
faithful  ministers  of  the  Word  in  their  native  prov- 
ince of  Northumbria,  while  Cedd  preached  in  both 
Mid-Anglia  and  Essex. 

Two  years  before  the  death  of  Penda,  his  son 
Peada  sought  a  daughter  of  Oswiu  in  marriage,  and, 
being  refused  on  account  of  his  faith,  offered  himself 


134^        WHOM  THE  BRITON  HONOURS 

for  instruction  in  the  Christian  religion,  witH  the 
result  that  he  declared  his  intention  of  becoming  a 
Christian,  whether  or  not  he  obtained  the  hand  of 
the  Princess  Alchfled.  His  baptism  and  marriage  oc- 
curred that  same  year  of  653,  and,  with  four  mis- 
sionaries, among  whom  was  Cedd,  the  Mercian 
prince  returned  to  Mid-Anglia,  which  he  ruled  as 
under-king.  For  the  first  time  the  gospel  was 
preached  freely  and  effectively  among  the  people  of 
Central  England.  Strange  to  say.  King  Penda  did 
not  object  to  his  son's  efforts  for  the  conversion  of 
his  people.  He  had  struggled  for  political  supremacy 
and  so  had  gathered  about  him  in  the  years  since  Nor- 
thumbria's  conversion  those  pagan  forces  which  were 
hostile  to  the  power  of  the  northern  kings.  To  this 
desire  for  power  he  would  seem  to  have  added  a 
hatred  of  insincerity  which  caused  him  to  despise 
"  those  whom  he  perceived  to  be  without  the  works  of 
faith,  when  they  had  once  received  the  faith  of  Christ, 
saying  that  they  were  contemptible  who  scorned  to 
obey  the  God  in  whom  they  trusted."  Perhaps,  too, 
the  years  had  wrought  changes  with  Penda,  and  very 
surely  he  found  in  these  northern  missionaries  men 
in  whose  consecration  he  could  believe.  We  would 
like  to  know  whether  the  longing  ever  came  to  Penda 
to  make  personal  trial  of  a  faith  that  had  wrought 
such  changes  in  the  neighbouring  kingdoms,  but  if 
the  call  to  Christian  service  ever  came  to  the  stubborn 
old  pagan,  he  would  seem  to  have  turned  to  it  a 
deaf  ear. 

But  to  return  to  Cedd.  On  a  visit  to  the  north 
the  king  of  Essex  had  been  won  to  Christianity  by 
his  overlord  Oswiu,  who  reasoned  with  him  long  and 
earnestly,  seeking  to  prove  the  folly  of  representing 


ENGLAND'S  LESSER  APOSTLES        135 

the  Giver  of  all  life  by  inanimate  wood  or  stone. 
After  Sigbert's  conversion  and  return  to  Essex, 
Oswiu  transferred  Cedd  from  his  labours  in  Mid- 
Anglia  to  Essex,  sending  with  him  two  assistants. 
So,  after  forty  years  of  darkness,  the  gospel  came 
once  more  to  the  East  Saxons,  who  for  eleven  years 
listened  willingly  on  the  whole  to  the  preaching 
of  the  great-hearted  Northumbrian.  Some  of  the 
gesiths,  however,  resented  the  missionary's  attempts 
to  reform  the  moral  standard  of  the  court,  and  mur- 
dered the  good  Sigbert  for  personal  reasons  and  be- 
cause "  he  was  too  apt  to  spare  his  enemies,  and 
calmly  forgave  them  the  wrongs  they  had  done  him." 
Yet  the  missionary-bishop  was  granted  the  joy  of  bap- 
tizing the  successor  of  the  murdered  king,  and  con- 
tinued his  labours  in  peace  until  his  death  in  664. 

The  year  following  the  death  of  Cedd  a  pestilence 
swept  over  England,  which  many  of  the  new  converts 
regarded  as  a  punishment  sent  by  their  fathers'  gods 
for  apostasy.  In  Essex,  where  paganism  had  so  re- 
cently held  sway,  the  faith  of  the  Christians  was  se- 
verely tested.  One  of  the  two  kings  ruling  the  prov- 
ince openly  renounced  Christianity  and,  following  in 
the  steps  of  their  ruler,  the  people,  in  a  frenzy  of 
fear  and  remorse,  drove  away  the  ministers  of  the 
faith,  closed  the  churches,  and  resorted  to  all  manner 
of  charms  and  incantations  to  stay  the  ravages  of  the 
dread  disease.  Help  came  at  last  from  the  Mercian 
king  Wulfhere,  who  sent  one  Jaruman  to  recall  Essex 
to  the  faith.  Undaunted  by  plague  or  pagan  hos- 
tility, the  good  bishop  travelled  throughout  the 
length  and  breadth  of  the  country,  pleading  and 
exhorting  so  effectively  that  king  and  people  repented 
their  sin  and  returned  to  the  Lord. 


136         WHOM  THE  BRITON  HONOURS 

East  Anglia  owed  its  final  conversion  to  a  Burgun- 
dian  missionary  named  Felix.  In  another  chapter 
we  have  told  of  the  conversion  of  Rasdwald's  son 
Earpwald,  and  the  martyrdom  which  he  suffered  at 
the  hands  of  his  heathen  thegns.  For  three  years 
thereafter  there  was  no  Christian  preaching  in  the 
kingdom,  and  the  scattered  and  fearful  believers  must 
have  welcomed  the  coming  of  the  Christian  king  Sig- 
bert  with  great  joy,  Sigbert,  who  was  a  brother  of 
Earpwald,  had  accepted  Christianity  during  a  long 
exile  on  the  Continent,  and  now  became  a  strong  sup- 
porter of  the  new  missionary's  efforts  for  the  evan- 
gelization of  East  Anglia.  Bede's  record  of  the  life 
and  labours  of  Felix  is  striking  in  its  simplicity.  We 
read  that  during  his  seventeen  years  of  service  "  he 
reaped  a  great  harvest  of  believers,  delivering  all  that 
province  (according  to  the  inner  signification  of  his 
name)  from  long  iniquity  and  unhappiness,  and 
bringing  it  to  the  faith  and  works  of  righteousness, 
and  the  gifts  of  everlasting  happiness." 

Another  continental  missionary  who  came  to  Eng- 
land with  the  gospel  message  was  Birinus,  the  apostle 
of  Wessex.  There  was  at  this  time  considerable 
commercial  intercourse  between  the  English  kingdoms 
and  Italy,  and  doubtless  Birinus  first  became  inter- 
ested in  the  far-away  island  through  Anglo-Saxon 
sailors  in  the  Genoese  port,  where  he  was  later  con- 
secrated to  a  life  of  missionary  activity.  The  Italian 
bishop  came  to  England  purposing  to  penetrate  into 
regions  as  yet  untouched  by  the  gospel,  but,  finding 
the  Gewissse  or  West  Saxons  still  pagan,  he  decided 
to  remain  among  them.  Like  the  other  labourers  in 
England,  Birinus  was  happy  in  first  winning  the  king 
of  the  province,  Cynegils,  and,  with  his  help,  worked 


ENGLAND'S  LESSER  APOSTLES        137 

a  won'derful  transformation  in  Wessex.  He  died 
December  3,  650,  three  years  after  the  passing  of 
East  Angha's  beloved  apostle. 

The  name  of  the  beautiful  Gothic  cathedral  in  Lich- 
field and  a  seventh  or  eighth  century  copy  of  the  Gos- 
pels in  the  Saxon  tongue,  still  preserved  in  the  old 
church,  form  a  connecting  link  between  the  humble 
apostle  of  the  Mercians,  St.  Chad  of  beautiful  life 
and  poetic  legend,  and  our  own  oftentimes  more 
prosaic  Christianity.  St.  Chad,  then  known  as 
Ceadda,  had  learned  the  true  missionary  spirit  from 
his  teacher,  the  noble  Aidan.  With  the  scholastic 
temper  which  characterized  so  many  of  Northum- 
bria's  later  sons,  giving  the  world  a  Bede,  an  Egbert, 
and  an  Alcuin,  Ceadda  resolved  to  obtain  what  learn- 
ing his  day  afforded.  Ireland  was  then  the  goal  of 
the  scholar,  and  for  some  years,  how  long  we  do  not 
know,  Ceadda  studied  in  the  schools  which  the  preach- 
ing of  Patricius  had  made  possible.  He  was  conse- 
crated Bishop  of  York  when  that  see  was  made  vacant 
by  Wilfrid's  continued  absence.  After  the  Synod  at 
Whitby,  Theodore  of  Tarsus  was  sent  to  England 
to  organize,  according  to  Roman  methods,  the  splen- 
did beginnings  which  Christian  labourers  had  made  in 
the  island.  Finding  Ceadda's  consecration  irregular 
because  performed  by  British  bishops,  Theodore  an- 
nulled the  rite.  The  spirit  in  which  Ceadda  received 
this  act  is  wonderfully  suggestive  of  the  character  of 
his  Christian  life. 

"  If  you  know  that  I  have  not  duly  received  episco- 
pal ordination,  I  willingly  resign  the  office,  for  I  never 
thought  myself  worthy  of  it;  but,  though  unworthy, 
for  obedience  sake,  I  submitted  when  bidden  to  un- 
dertake it." 


138        WHOM  THE  BRITON  HONOURS 

And  these  words  from  one  of  the  most  honoured 
characters  in  early  history. 

Needless  to  say,  Ceadda  was  soon  after  consecrated 
according  to  Roman  form  and,  a  little  later,  given 
the  see  of  Mercia.  Here,  as  in  Northumbria,  he  la- 
boured untiringly  for  the  good  of  those  whose  spir- 
itual guide  he  was.  In  the  latter  kingdom  he  had 
been  accustomed  to  make  long  journeys  on  foot,  and 
it  is  related  that  the  great  Archbishop  himself  once 
lifted  Ceadda  on  horseback  when,  in  his  humility,  the 
missionary  had  refused  to  ride.  He  preached  the 
gospel  "  in  towns,  the  open  country,  cottages,  vil- 
lages, and  castles,"  winning  the  devotion  of  all 
classes  of  people.  He  trembled  with  awe  before  wind 
and  tempest  as  the  august  warning  of  Him  who  had 
made  heaven  and  earth.  Near  the  church  at  Lichfield 
he  built  a  little  oratory,  where  he  was  accustomed  to 
withdraw,  when  duty  permitted,  for  study  of  the 
Word  and  prayer.  In  this  manner  he  spent  two 
years  and  a  half,  when,  another  great  pestilence  visit- 
ing the  land,  Ceadda  was  called  into  his  Lord's  pres- 
ence. 

There  remains  to  tell  of  the  conversion  of  the  South 
Saxons,  the  last  of  the  early  English  to  yield  to  the 
influences  of  Christianity.  The  history  of  Sussex 
includes  the  landing  of  the  first  Saxon  invaders  under 
^lla  at  Selsey  and  the  siege  of  Anderida,  where  not 
one  Briton  was  left  alive  by  the  pagan  from  across 
the  seas.  But  beyond  the  Roman  fortress  stretched 
the  desolate  Romney  marshes,  and  away  to  the  north 
a  dense,  primeval  forest,  the  Andred's  weald,  barred 
the  Saxon's  way  to  greater  conquest.  So  the  little 
kingdom  on  the  Channel  remained  outside  the  rising 
tide  of  civilization  for  a  full  two  hundred  years,  and 


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ENGLAND'S  LESSER  APOSTLES        139 

when,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh  century,  a  mis- 
sionary by  chance  came  among  them,  the  South 
Saxons  were  still  living  among  almost  primitive  con- 
ditions. 

It  was  in  the  year  68i  that  Wilfrid  of  York,  driven 
from  his  bishopric  and  afterward  from  his  refuge 
in  Mercia,  began  preaching  among  this  southern  folk, 
whom,  with  his  peculiar  evangelistic  ability,  he  won 
as  a  whole  from  heathenism.  Fifteen  years  earlier, 
on  Wilfrid's  return  from  Rome,  his  vessel  had  been 
driven  on  the  coast  of  Sussex,  among  a  hostile  people. 
A  strange,  weird  picture  it  is  that  the  historian  has 
left  of  this  incident.  The  fantastic  figure  of  a 
heathen  priest  chanting  spells  and  incantations  stands 
outlined  against  the  sky  on  a  wild  cliff,  while  wreckers 
of  the  coast  are  ready  to  dash  upon  the  men  from  the 
stranded  ship  and  put  them  to  death.  One  of 
the  crew  hurls  a  stone  at  the  enchanter,  precipitat- 
ing the  fury  of  his  tribesmen,  who  are  only  prevented 
by  the  returning  tide  from  destroying  one  who  will 
return  to  them  as  a  deliverer  from  famine  and  spir- 
itual darkness. 

When  Wilfrid  came  a  second  time  among  the  South 
Saxons,  he  found  them  suffering  from  the  effects  of 
a  three  years'  famine  and  drought.  So  hopeless  had 
this  ignorant  folk  become  that,  banding  themselves 
together  in  lines  of  forty  or  fifty,  they  would  leap 
from  the  headlands  into  the  sea.  But  the  exiled 
bishop  was  equal  to  the  emergency,  and  while  he  told 
them  of  the  heavenly  country,  he  taught  them  to 
weave  together  the  small  eel-nets,  their  only  possession, 
and  with  these  venture  out  into  the  rivers  and  bays 
for  a  more  plentiful  harvest  of  fish.^  Wilfrid  re- 
*  A  beginning  of  industrial  missions? 


140         WHOM  THE  BRITON  HONOURS 

mained  among  the  South  Saxons  for  five  years,  dur- 
ing which  time  he  sent  assistant  missionaries  to  min- 
ister to  the  Jutes  on  the  Isle  of  Wight.  Thus  the 
last  strongholds  of  pagan  England  were  stormed  and 
taken,  and  a  new  period  began,  a  period  of  organiza- 
tion and  instruction,  of  development  in  Christian  edu- 
cation and  in  the  arts  of  peaceful  and  ordered  living, 
until  at  last,  through  the  influences  set  at  work  by 
the  introduction  of  Christianity,  the  peoples  so  long 
glancing  askance  at  one  another  across  hostile  boun- 
daries became  one  folk  and,  joining  hands  with  a 
kindred  people  ^  of  like  precious  faith,  began  to- 
gether to  climb  the  long  upward  slope  which  has  led 
to  such  a  vision  of  moral  and  spiritual  possibility  as 
the  Briton  to-day  possesses.  And  we  who  look  back 
to  Saxon  days  as  of  a  truth  our  own  rejoice  in  adding 
our  word  of  praise  to  those  noble  pioneer  missionaries 
whose  word  and  life  gave  to  us,  too,  a  Christian 
heritage. 
^The  Normans. 


XIII 

LABOURERS  IN  FRIESLAND 
Amandus,  Eligius,  Wilfrid,  Willibrord, 

LiUDGER,  AND  WiLLEHAD 

"  Fling  out  the  banner  :  let  it  float 

Skyward  and  seaward,  high  and  wide  ; 
The  sun  that  lights  its  shining  folds, 
The  cross  on  which  the  Saviour  died." 

— George  W.  Doane. 

"  4  S  long  as  the  wind  blows  out  of  the  clouds 
A%  and  the  world  stands,  the  Frisians  shall  be 
free."  Thus  ran  the  legend  inscribed  upon 
the  statute-book  of  the  northernmost  tribe  inhabiting 
the  forests  and  dunes  of  the  Netherlands.  From 
their  first  appearance  in  history  their  record  is  one 
of  struggle  against  mightier  powers  to  retain  ances- 
tral independence.  Near  kinsmen  of  the  Angles  and 
Saxons,  they  possessed  the  same  sturdy  qualities  as 
the  conquerors  of  Britain.  It  is  not  surprising, 
therefore,  to  find  them  for  many  years  resisting  all 
efforts  of  the  missionaries  sent  among  them  to  win 
them  to  the  Christian  faith,  and  clinging  tena- 
ciously to  the  worship  of  gods  in  whose  name  their 
ancient  heroes  had  fought  and  conquered.  A  new 
religion  and  new  customs  threatened  the  very  founda- 
tions of  the  old  free  life,  and  priests  and  leaders  and 
people  set  themselves  like  flint  against  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  Christian  Church. 

141 


142  LABOURERS  IN  FRIESLAND 

One  of  the  earliest  missionary  labourers  in  the 
Netherlands  was  Amandus,  for  some  years  Bishop  of 
Trajectum,  the  modern  Utrecht.  Born  in  Acquitaine 
and  trained  on  a  lonely  island  off  the  Gallic  coast  and 
later  at  Bourges,  he  returned  from  a  pilgrimage  to 
Rome  to  labour  for  the  conversion  of  the  pagan 
tribes  about  Tournai  on  the  Schelde.  Meeting  with 
little  success,  he  besought  Dagobert,  king  of  the 
Austrasians,  to  force  upon  these  tribes  the  Christian 
faith.  As  might  have  been  expected,  the  result  was 
a  widespread  revolt,  for,  needless  to  say,  violence 
never  yet  won  converts  to  the  Gospel  of  Peace  and 
Goodwill.  After  a  mission  to  the  Slavic  tribes  of 
the  Danube,  Amandus  returned  to  the  Netherlands 
and,  by  milder  methods,  gained  scattered  converts 
among  the  pagan  tribes  to  the  north  of  his  diocese, 
meanwhile  establishing  Christian  schools  throughout 
the  modern  Belgium. 

A  more  attractive  character  is  the  gentle  St.  Eloy, 
or  Eligius.  He  had  everything  to  draw  him  away 
from  the  practice  of  a  true  religious  belief.  By  birth 
belonging  to  a  noble  family,^  his  rank,  together  with 
his  skill  as  a  goldsmith,  early  brought  him  to  the 
attention  of  the  Austrasian  king.  Surrounded  by  the 
corrupt  influences  of  the  Prankish  court,  he  yet  lived 
a  simple,  upright  life,  "  by  his  integrity  and  trust- 
worthiness winning  the  particular  esteem  of  King 
Clotaire  II."  ^  Always  while  fashioning  the  delicate 
tracery  with  which  he  adorned  the  churches  of  his 
day,  he  kept  open  before  him  a  copy  of  the  Bible  and, 
by  its  pure  teachings,  held  himself  above  the  level  of 
the  life  about  him.     He  earned  vast  sums  by  the  prac- 

1  Born  near  Limoges  in  588. 

2  Neander,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  41. 


Di   Banco 


STATUE  OF  ST.   ELIGIUS 


AMANDUS,  ELIGIUS,  WILFRID  143 

tice  of  his  profession,  but  spent  it  all  in  various  forms 
of  charity,  especially  in  the  ransom  of  slaves.  While 
still  a  layman  the  purity  of  his  life  and  his  wisdom 
and  learning  gained  for  him  the  admiration  of  men 
even  so  far  as  Italy  and  Spain.  In  641,  twenty-six 
years  after  the  death  of  Columbanus,  and  while  Aidan 
was  still  labouring  in  Northumbria,  Eligius  was  made 
Bishop  of  Vermandois,  Tournai,  and  Noyon.  For 
eighteen  years  he  was  an  efficient  pastor  and  spiritual 
leader,  aiming  to  make  the  Christian  profession  the 
expression  of  a  changed  life.  To  his  ministers  and 
people  he  was  wont  to  say,  "  It  is  not  enough  that  you 
have  taken  upon  you  the  Christian  name,  if  you  do 
not  the  works  of  a  Christian.  The  Christian  name 
is  profitable  only  to  him  who  constantly  treasures 
Christ's  precepts  in  his  heart  and  expresses  them  in 
his  life."  It  was  during  this  period  that  his  mis- 
sionary journeys  were  undertaken.  Beyond  the 
boundaries  of  his  diocese  he  carried  the  gospel  mes- 
sage to  the  still  pagan  tribes  of  the  north,  not  always 
kindly  received,  sometimes  endangering  his  life. 
Thus,  for  almost  the  first  time,  was  the  Christian  re- 
ligion preached  in  Friesland. 

After  Amandus  and  Eligius  came  Wilfrid  of  York. 
In  678,  on  his  second  journey  to  Rome  to  appeal  to 
the  leaders  of  the  church  for  the  possession  of  his 
diocese,  Wilfrid  was  shipwrecked  on  the  shores  of 
Friesland  and,  touched  by  the  need  of  this  heathen 
folk,  he  forgot  for  a  time  his  own  troubles  and  ap- 
pealed to  their  king,  Aldgils,  for  permission  to  preach 
the  Word  to  his  subjects.  Aldgils  was  a  far  more 
liberal  man  than  his  successor,  Radbod,  and  readily 
granted  his  request.  Besides,  there  was  as  yet  no 
question  of  politics  involved.     Partly  because  of  their 


144  LABOURERS  IN  FRIESLAND 

king's  attitude,  partly,  we  may  be  sure,  as  a  result  of 
the  missionary's  tact,  manifested  in  his  dealings  with 
the  South  Saxons,  the  Northumbrian  bishop  soon 
found  himself  addressing  large  audiences  of  chief- 
tains and  warriors,  women  and  children,  many  of 
whom  believed  and  were  baptized.  News  of  these 
successes  coming  to  the  Mayor  of  the  Palace  in 
Neustria,  Ebroin  sent  messengers  to  King  Aldgils, 
stirring  him  up  to  the  assassination  of  the  missionary, 
then  a  guest  at  the  Frisian  court.  It  was  a  winter 
evening  when  the  letter  was  brought  to  the  king,  and 
Wilfrid  and  Aldgils  sat  together  in  the  royal  hall. 
The  noble  Frisian  read  Ebroin's  warning  and  then, 
because  he  believed  in  the  sincerity  of  the  man  whom 
he  had  befriended,  dropped  the  letter  quietly  into  the 
flames.  All  that  winter  Wilfrid  remained  among  the 
Frisians,  labouring  disinterestedly  to  bring  them  to 
an  acceptance  of  the  Christian  faith,  but  in  the  spring 
he  was  forced  to  continue  his  journey  and,  with  none 
to  further  the  work  begun  by  the  Northumbrian 
bishop,  the  immediate  results  of  his  labours  were 
soon  swallowed  up  in  the  surrounding  paganism. 

Still  Wilfrid's  visit  to  Frisia  served  to  open  the 
hearts  of  the  home  churches  to  the  need  of  their 
heathen  kinsmen  on  the  farther  shores  of  the  North 
Sea.  Ten  years  later  Egbert,  who  had  gone  to  Ire- 
land with  Ceadda  in  his  youth  and  had  remained  in 
voluntary  exile  there,  determined  to  undertake  a  mis- 
sion in  Friesland,  but  was  turned  aside  from  his  pur- 
pose by  a  vision  and  by  a  storm  destroying  the  ship 
in  which  he  was  to  sail  for  the  Continent.  Among 
the  companions  whom  he  had  chosen  for  the  journey 
was  an  English  monk  named  Wictbert,  who  took  up 
the  work  laid  down  by  his  superior,  labouring  among 


WILLIBRORD  145 

the  Frisians  for  two  years  without  success.  Their 
king,  xA-ldgils,  was  dead,  and  his  successor,  Radbod, 
was  bitterly  hostile  to  the  new  faith.  Perhaps,  too, 
Wictbert  lacked  the  persuasive  power  of  the  North- 
umbrian prelate.  At  all  events,  according  to  Bede, 
"  he  reaped  no  fruit  of  all  his  great  labour  among 
his  barbarous  hearers,"  and  returned  home  with  faith 
in  missionary  enterprise  shattered. 

It  is  significant,  however,  that  these  events  did  not 
discourage  the  home  church.  Upon  Wictbert's  re- 
turn, new  plans  were  laid  for  the  evangelization  of  the 
Netherlands,  and  in  690  ^  a  second  company,  also  com- 
posed of  twelve  labourers,  was  sent  out  by  Bishop 
Egbert.  The  leader  of  these  missionaries  was  Willi- 
brord,  or  Wilbrord,  who  had  lived  from  infancy  in 
Wilfrid's  monastery  of  Ripon  in  the  West  Riding  of 
Yorkshire.  At  the  age  of  twenty  he  had  gone  to  Ire- 
land for  study  and,  after  twelve  years  spent  in  satis- 
faction of  his  love  of  learning,  heard  the  divine  call  to 
a  life  of  ser^dce  for  humanity.  In  the  meantime,  Pepin 
of  Heristal,  father  of  Charles  Martel,  had  won  West 
Frisia  from  Duke  Radbod,  and,  to  secure  his  large 
boundaries,  had  erected  forts  at  Utrecht  and  Dore- 
stad.  With  Prankish  authority  to  keep  the  west 
coast  and  its  islands  in  a  state  of  peace,  Willibrord 
found  his  work  opening  auspiciously.  In  696  he  was 
consecrated  Archbishop  of  the  Frisians  in  the  church 
of  Santa  Cecilia  in  Trastevere  at  Rome.  Utrecht, 
called  in  the  Frisian  tongue  Wiltaberg,  and  in  the 
Roman  Trajectum,  was  chosen  for  the  seat  of  the  new 
see,  and  from  this  city  the  missionary's  later  work 
was  directed.  Willibrord's  efforts  in  West  Frisia 
were  so  successful  that  he  has  become  known  as  the 
^692? 


146  LABOURERS  IN  FRIESLAND 

Apostle  to  the  Frisians.  In  the  eastern  districts  he 
encountered  greater  difficulties,  for  there  Radbod,  the 
heathen  prince  who  had  persecuted  the  church  of 
Wilfrid's  planting,  still  maintained  his  indepen- 
dence. 

On  one  occasion  Willibrord  undertook  to  carry  the 
gospel  message  to  the  Jutlanders  of  the  north.  He 
was  met  with  indifference,  however,  and  even  with 
hostility,  and  sailed  for  home  at  last  with  thirty  lads, 
whom  he  had  purchased  during  his  stay  in  the  north- 
ern province.  But  the  ships  of  that  day  were  far  too 
rude  to  render  travel  safe,  and  Willibrord  was  driven 
upon  the  red  sandstone  cliffs  of  Heligoland.  On  this 
little  triangular  island,  sacred  to  an  ancient  goddess, 
Fosite,  Willibrord,  perhaps  in  proof  of  the  impotency 
of  the  island's  protectress,  baptized  his  boy  converts  in 
a  spring  sacred  to  the  heathen  deity.  The  islanders 
were  enraged  by  this  sacrilege,  and  by  the  slaughter 
of  sacred  cattle,  and  fell  upon  the  shipwrecked  men, 
making  them  prisoners,  and  sacrificing  one  of  their 
number  to  the  jealous  goddess.  Through  the  influ- 
ence of  Radbod,  the  others  were  finally  returned  to 
Frisia  in  safety. 

With  the  death  of  Duke  Radbod  in  719,  and  the 
annexation  of  East  Frisia  to  the  kingdom  of  the 
Franks,  the  opportunities  for  missionary  effort  were 
greatly  enlarged,  though  the  widespread  acceptance  of 
the  Christian  faith  which  followed  under  the  influence 
of  political  leaders  was  very  likely  more  nominal  than 
real.  Still  the  Frisians  had  been  brought  sufficiently  in 
contact  with  Christianity  during  the  years  of  Willi- 
brord's  preaching  to  discover  somewhat  of  its  teach- 
ings, and  even  Radbod,  it  will  be  remembered,  had 
advanced   from  persecution  to  a  tolerant  and  even 


LIUDGER  147 

sympathetic  treatment  of  the  Christian  missionaries 
from  Britain. 

After  Radbod's  death  WilHbrord  was  joined  by  a 
monk  from  Devonshire,  who  was  destined  to  become 
in  later  years  the  Apostle  of  Germany.  During  the 
three  years  from  719  to  722  Winfrid,  better  known 
as  Boniface,  laboured  as  Willibrord's  assistant  with 
such  marked  success  that  the  weary  Bishop  would 
gladly  have  appointed  him  his  successor  in  the  direc- 
tion of  the  Friesland  missions.  But  Boniface  had 
already  heard  the  longing  cry  of  the  dwellers  among 
the  forest-clad  hills  of  Germany  and,  realizing  that 
there  were  labourers  ready  to  take  up  the  work  in 
Frisia,  left  Utrecht  to  plunge  into  the  wilds  of  Hesse 
and  Thuringia.  Seventeen  years  longer  Willibrord 
laboured  in  the  Netherlands,  putting  the  work  so 
auspiciously  begun  upon  a  firm  basis.  Death  came  at 
last  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  739,  when  the  veteran 
missionary  had  reached  the  advanced  age  of  eighty- 
one  years. 

Among  the  later  missionaries  to  the  Frisians  should 
be  mentioned  Liudger  and  Willehad,  who  laboured  in 
the  northern  districts  where,  as  we  shall  see  later, 
Boniface  was  to  lay  down  his  life  for  his  Master's 
sake.  In  these  remote  regions  paganism  lingered  on 
long  after  Willibrord  had  brought  the  principal  parts 
of  Frisia  under  the  influences  of  the  gospel.  For  the 
old  faiths  were  too  deeply  rooted  in  the  hearts  of 
this  sturdy  folk,  and  the  hope  of  a  continuance  of 
their  independence  too  great,  for  the  ready  accep- 
tance of  a  religion  brought  to  them  by  their  con- 
querors. 

While  Radbod  was  still  reigning  in  East  Frisia, 
among  his  judges  was  one  Wursing,  a  just  man,  who 


148  LABOURERS  IN  FRIESLAND 

,  showed  the  work  of  the  Law  written  in  his  heart  and 
was  ever  reaching  out  after  the  deeper  mysteries  of 
the  Teutonic  faith,  in  which  he  had  been  reared.  His 
impartial  administration  of  justice  at  last  became 
hateful  to  the  Frisian  duke,  and  Wursing  was  forced 
to  flee  to  the  kingdom  of  the  Franks,  where  he  found 
the  peace  for  which  he  had  been  seeking.  He  became 
a  devout  follower  of  the  Christ,  bringing  his  whole 
family  with  him  into  the  church.  On  his  return  to 
Frisia,  he  was  a  pillar  of  strength  to  Willibrord  in 
his  struggle  with  the  dying  heathenism.  Liudger  was 
a  descendant  of  Wursing,  and  seems  to  have  possessed 
a  like  simple  faith.  Like  so  many  of  those  early  mis- 
sionaries, Liudger  was  first  of  all  a  scholar,  and  from 
his  school  in  Utrecht  went  to  York  to  study  under 
Alcuin.  He  took  care  to  bring  with  him  on  his  return 
a  goodly  store  of  books,  in  which  his  soul  delighted, 
and  we  may  be  sure  that  he  was  none  the  less  fitted 
for  his  w^ork  among  a  rude  but  sturdy  people  because 
he  cared  for  the  life  of  the  mind  as  well  as  the  life  of 
the  soul.  When  his  labours  in  North  Frisia  were  in- 
terrupted by  the  revolt  of  Wittekind  and  the  revival 
of  paganism,  Liudger  journeyed  to  Rome,  but  on  the 
re-establishment  of  peace  and  the  baptism  of  the 
Saxon  chieftain,  the  dauntless  missionary  was  back 
again  at  the  scene  of  his  earlier  labours,  this  time 
extending  his  mission  to  the  island  on  which  Willi- 
brord's  companion  had  been  sacrificed  to  the  goddess 
Fosite.  Here  Liudger  preached  with  so  persuasive  a 
power  that  prince  and  people  renounced  their  idols 
and  together  accepted  Christianity.  Active  to  the 
last,  he  preached  twice  on  the  Sunday  preceding  his 
death,  which  occurred  on  the  twenty-sixth  of  March, 
809. 


WILLEHAD  149 

Meanwhile  a  Northumbrian  named  Willehad  was 
likewise  labouring  in  North  Frisia,  beginning  his  mis- 
sion in  the  vicinity  of  Dokkum,  where  he  succeeded 
in  winning  many  converts  to  the  faith.  His  later 
fields  included  Gronigen  and  Drenthe,  in  both  of  which 
he  suffered  persecution  from  the  pagan  populace,  nar- 
rowly escaping  death  at  Drenthe  for  having  set  fire 
to  a  heathen  temple.  Charles  the  Great  appointed 
him  missionary  to  the  Saxons  after  their  defeat  and 
forced  conversion.  Here  he  founded  the  see  of 
Bremen,  dying  at  Blexam,  on  the  Weser,  in 
789. 

"The  lives  of  these  holy  men,"  says  Professor 
Blok,  "  tell  of  their  courage,  self-sacrifice,  and  zealous 
labours  amid  rude  dwellers  in  forests  and  morasses. 
Convents  were  everywhere  founded,  seminaries,  as  it 
were,  for  the  education  of  new  preachers  of  the  gos- 
pel, who  were  to  continue  the  work  of  their  prede- 
cessors. .  .  .  Heathen  temples,  rich  in  idols,  cov- 
ered the  land  of  the  Frisians.  They  (the  Frisians) 
and  the  unconverted  Saxons  often  destroyed  the  new 
little  wooden  churches  and  murdered  preachers. 
.  .  .  Everything  goes  to  show  that  the  inhabitants 
of  the  country  north  of  the  mouth  of  the  Rhine  were 
extremely  rude  and  uncivilized.  In  places  like  Tra- 
jectuni  and  Dorestad,  however,  a  certain  amount  of 
luxury  must  have  prevailed  within  the  mostly  wooden 
houses  grouped  around  the  wooden  churches.  This 
luxury  was  the  result  of  the  trade  in  Frisian  cattle, 
horses,  woven  mantles,  wines,  wood,  and  grain  from 
the  upper  Rhine.  The  Frisian  merchants  were  seen  in 
the  markets  of  St.  Denis,  as  well  as  of  York,  Bremen, 
Hamburg,  and  Schleswig.  Agriculture  must  also 
have  been  considerably  developed  before  the   eighth 


150  LABOURERS  IN  FRIESLAND 

century,  judging  from  the  numerous  farms  presented 
by  the  faithful  to  the  monastic  institutions."  ^ 

Eight  centuries  later  this  little  land,  upon  which  the 
merciless  sea  had  preyed  so  long,  which  had  been  so 
often  the  battle-ground  of  mightier  powers,  which, 
despite  all,  had  never  lost  heart  and  never  ceased  to 
hope  for  a  return  of  its  lost  liberty,  for  the  sake  of 
religious  freedom  set  itself  to  oppose  the  wealth  and 
military  strength  of  Spain  and  of  the  Church,  two 
well-nigh  invincible  powers.  But  the  spirit  of  the 
ancient  Frieslanders  still  animated  the  Dutch  nation 
and  as  Willibrord  and  Liudger  had  declared  to  the 
worshippers  of  Odin  the  God  whom  they  ignorantly 
worshipped,  so  when  the  faith  they  preached  had 
been  obscured  in  the  worldliness  of  its  priests,  the 
vision  of  a  purer  worship  was  granted  this  little  land 
and  religious  and  political  liberty  secured.  Brave 
little  Holland,  winner  in  the  long  conflict  with  the 
invading  sea  and  the  enslavers  of  the  soul,  may  the 
future  hold  for  thee  greater  because  more  peaceful 
victories,  and  may  the  Christ  ever  hold  sway  in  the 
hearts  of  the  descendants  of  the  Frisians. 

1 "  History  of  the  People  of  the  Netherlands,"  Petrus  Johannes 
Blok. 


XIV 

THE  MONK  OF  NUTSCELLE 

WiNFRiD,  Better  Known  as  Boniface 

"  The  groves  were  God's  first  temples.     Ere  man  learned 
To  hew  the  shaft,  and  lay  the  architrave, 
And  spread  the  roof  above  them,— ere  he  framed 
The  lofty  vault,  to  gather  and  roll  back 
The  sound  of  anthems  ;  in  the  darkling  wood, 
Amidst  the  cool  and  silence,  he  knelt  down 
And  offered  to  the  Mightiest  solemn  thanks 
And  supplication." 

—Bryant,  ''Forest  Hymn" 

"  What  therefore  ye  worship  in  ignorance,  this  set  I  forth  unto 
you." 

AMONG  the  monks  of  the  Abbey  of  Nutscelle 
or  Netley,  not  far  from  the  ancient  Gwent- 
^  ceaster/  there  was  in  the  year  715  a  man  of 
West  Saxon  family,  whose  intellectual  power  and 
practical  qualities  had  made  him  already  a  marked 
personage  in  ecclesiastical  circles.  Born  at  Crediton, 
in  what  is  now  Devonshire,  about  680,  trained  from 
the  age  of  seven  in  the  monastery  of  Exeter,  whence 
he  had  come  to  Nutscelle  when  still  a  young  man, 
more  than  once  entrusted  by  his  superiors  and  King 
Ine  with  important  commissions  requiring  tact  and 
sound  judgment,  the  monk  Winfrid,  known  in  history 
as  Boniface,  Apostle  to  Germany,  was  in  a  fair  way 

1  Winchester. 

151 


152  THE  MONK  OF  NUTSCELLE 

to  rise  to  a  position  of  influence  in  the  English  Church 
similar  to  that  won  and  lost  by  the  Northumbrian 
Wilfrid. 

Fifty  years  and  more  had  gone  by  since  the  Synod 
of  Whitby  united  the  English  Church  in  one  form  of 
faith  and  in  matters  religious  made  north  and  south 
of  one  mind.  Not  so  in  things  political.  The  king- 
doms of  Northumbria  and  Mercia  and  Wessex  still 
watched  each  other  suspiciously,  and  in  turn  grew 
strong  or  weak  in  their  overlordship  of  the  smaller 
principalities  forming  the  Saxon  Heptarchy.  Mer- 
cia's  acceptance  of  Christianity  had  increased  her 
power,  and  under  Wulfhere  Central  England  attained 
to  greater  influence  than  ever  Penda  had  won  for  it. 
After  the  death  of  this  king  the  tides  of  power  ebbed 
and  flowed  until  Egbert  united  all  England  under  his 
banner  in  826.  During  the  first  years  of  the  eighth 
century,  King  Ine  of  Wessex  extended  his  dominions 
through  southern  England,  defeating  and  driving 
back  the  Mercian  forces  in  the  very  year  in  which  our 
narrative  opens.  Christianity  was  by  this  time  be- 
coming firmly  established  in  the  English  kingdoms. 
Everywhere  churches  and  schools  were  being  built 
and  a  life  of  settled  labour  was  more  and  more  coming 
to  be  regarded  as  preferable  to  the  chances  of  war- 
fare. In  the  little  town  of  Brad ford-upon- Avon  still 
stands  a  Saxon  church  of  this  period,  erected  by 
Ealdhelm,  abbot  of  Malmesbury,  who,  to  win  the  in- 
different to  a  Christian  life,  sang  songs  of  praise  in 
the  open  air  to  all  who  would  listen. 

It  was  an  age,  too,  of  missionary  zeal.  The  two 
Hewalds  went  out  from  the  Saxons  of  Britain  to  the 
Old  Saxons  of  Germany.  Carrying  the  good  news  of 
salvation  through  a  crucified  and  risen  Saviour  to  the 


WINFRID,  KNOWN  AS  BONIFACE       153 

wild  Frieslanders,  went  Willibrord  of  Northiimbria. 
Bishop  Egbert,  by  whom  WiUibrord  was  commis- 
sioned, was  also  a  Northumbrian.  The  Friesland 
mission  seems  to  have  been  watched  with  especial  in- 
terest by  the  Enghsh  church,  and  we  may  picture  the 
rejoicing  in  the  infant  monastery  on  the  Solent  when 
one  day  travellers  from  across  the  sea  brought  news 
of  victories  won  for  the  Christ  on  the  lowland  plains 
of  Frisia.  To  one  at  least  of  that  circle  of  eager 
listeners  at  Nutscelle  the  wonderful  story  of  the  great 
missionary  hero  brought  conviction  as  well  as  interest, 
and  not  long  thereafter  Winfrid,  the  West  Saxon, 
presented  himself  before  his  abbot  as  a  volunteer  for 
service  in  the  Netherlands.  His  labours  at  this  period 
were  frustrated  by  the  hostility  of  Duke  Radbod,  but 
in  718  Boniface  again  set  out  for  the  Continent,  this 
time  bearing  credentials  from  Daniel  of  Winchester 
to  Pope  Gregory  II.,  who  appointed  the  Saxon  monk 
to  the  great  and  unorganized  field  forming  the  present 
Germany. 

And  so  Boniface  went  forth  to  his  great  task,  went 
forth  to  unite  the  little  scattered  mission  stations 
planted  everywhere  in  dark  forest-covered  Germany 
— by  lakeside,  in  hidden  valley,  or  on  the  river  shore 
— under  one  church  government,  which  had  not  yet 
developed  those  harmful  features  later  to  make  neces- 
sary the  work  of  a  Luther;  went  forth  to  preach  a 
pure  gospel — albeit  ritualism  had  taken  so  firm  a  hold 
upon  the  apostle's  mind — to  the  still  heathen  folk  of 
Thuringia  and  Hesse  and  Bavaria,  and  at  last  to  die 
a  martyr's  death  at  the  hands  of  the  North  Friesland- 
ers. In  the  land  where  Roman  legions  had  met  the 
invincible  armies  of  free-born  warriors  and  the  sol- 
diers of  Varus  had  been  cut  off  by  Hermann's  men. 


154  THE  MONK  OF  NUTSCELLE 

where  upon  the  grass-grown  ruins  of  Roman  cities 
missionaries  from  Ireland  had  planted  lonely  monas- 
teries and  sought  the  conversion  of  their  pagan  neigh- 
bours, in  a  land  of  desolate  stretches  of  virgin  forest, 
where  the  wild  beast  kept  his  solitary  lair  and  the 
loyal  Teuton  avenged  with  death  his  country's  gods, 
Boniface  began  a  period  of  missionary  service  extend- 
ing over  more  than  thirty  years,  before  the  close  of 
which  he  had  seen  Germany  nominally  a  Christian 
country. 

From  his  interview  with  the  Roman  bishop  Boni- 
face travelled  northward  in  the  spring  days  over  the 
old  Roman  roads  to  the  province  of  Thuringia,  bor- 
dering the  southern  bank  of  the  Elbe.  Weary  and 
footsore  he  must  have  been  when  he  reached  the  great 
Thuringiawald  and  from  some  hilltop  gazed  out  over 
the  unending  billows  of  pine  and  fir  which  followed 
the  lines  of  upland  and  valley.  Upon  such  a  height 
you  may  stand  to-day,  breathing  the  spicy  perfumes 
of  the  woodland  and  listening  to  the  peasants'  song, 
while,  as  from  a  Mount  of  Vision,  you  see  the  heroic 
figures  of  Thuringia's  long  history  in  the  great  scenes 
which  have  made  this  little  province  a  shrine  for  pil- 
grims from  every  land.  There  march  ranks  of  hel- 
meted  soldiers,  bearing  in  their  midst  the  eagles  of 
Imperial  Rome,  yet  destined  to  be  buffeted  and  beaten 
back  by  the  blue-eyed  giants  in  cloaks  of  bearskin,  of 
whom  the  Emperor  Titus  said,  "  Their  bodies  are 
great,  but  their  souls  are  greater."  Black-robed  trav- 
ellers, with  pilgrim's  staff  and  wallet  and  cases  of 
parchments,  thread  these  forest  ways,  bringing  from 
the  Isle  of  Saints  the  enthusiasm  of  the  Celt  for  his 
new-found  faith.  Boniface  comes  and  goes,  leaving 
the  land  under  the  law  of  Rome.     After  him  appears 


WINFRID,  KNOWN  AS  BONIFACE       155 

the  mailclad  knight,  at  whose  word  majestic  castles 
raise  their  frowning  walls  above  woodland  river  vales, 
clinging,  like  the  seeker  after  prey,  to  the  grey  face 
of  the  weather-beaten  precipice.  A  more  tender  light 
shines  upon  Hungary's  saint  in  whose  hands,  say  the 
legends,  gifts  for  the  poor  were  changed  to  roses  to 
save  her  from  the  anger  of  her  lord,  the  cruel  Duke 
of  Marburg.  Towering  above  them  all  in  mental  and 
moral  and  spiritual  strength  looms  the  great-hearted 
Luther,  whose  lonely  days  in  the  Wartburg  gave  to 
the  German  people  a  key  to  life  in  that  noble  transla- 
tion of  the  Scriptures  which  soon  found  its  way  into 
every  German  home  touched  by  the  Reformation.  As 
the  past  slips  away,  a  vision  of  prosperous  and  happy 
communities,  free  on  the  whole  to  think  and  achieve 
and  worship  as  they  will,  reveals  anew  what  the 
knowledge  of  Jesus  Christ  may  accomplish. 

Before  Boniface,  as  he  entered  the  gloomy  shadows 
of  the  Thuringiawald  twelve  hundred  years  ago,  how 
different  a  prospect  opened.  Everything  was  yet  to 
be  accomplished,  at  least  so  it  would  seem  to  this  ad- 
herent of  Roman  supremacy.  Despite  the  fact  that 
Christianity  had  followed  the  Roman  army  in  those 
later  days  of  the  Empire  and  that  Celtic  missionaries 
had  laboured  and  died  for  the  faith,  Thuringia  was  still 
a  pagan  region  and  the  Thuringians  were  besides  hos- 
tile to  Christianity  as  the  faith  of  their  Frankish  con- 
querors. Yet  from  the  beginning  Boniface  loved  the 
land,  and  though  on  this  first  visit  he  was  able  to 
accomplish  very  little,  after  three  years  spent  at  the 
court  of  the  Austrasian  Mayor  of  the  Palace  and  in 
the  continuance  of  his  interrupted  labours  in  Frisia, 
he  returned  to  Germany  and  again  came  to  Thuringia, 
having  passed  through  Hesse,  where  he  baptized  the 


156  THE  MONK  OF  NUTSCELLE 

princes,  Detivig  or  Detdic  and  Dierolf,  and  founded 
a  Christian  school  at  Amoneburg.  In  723  Boniface 
carried  a  report  of  his  labours  in  person  to  Rome, 
and  came  back  to  his  mission  field  regionary-bishop, 
with  authority  to  organize  the  church  in  Germany  to 
the  end  that  greater  and  more  effective  work  might  be 
accomplished  there. 

In  zeal  for  the  conversion  and  instruction  of  his 
Teutonic  kinsmen,  the  Apostle  of  Germany  was  sec- 
ond to  none.  Many  once  baptized  had  lapsed  into 
heathen  practices,  many  others  still  clung  to  the  old 
faith.  By  all  gentle  means  Boniface  sought  to  win 
both  these  classes;  yet  on  occasion  he  could  brave 
their  anger,  striking  a  blow  at  the  very  heart  of  their 
religion.  Such  was  the  dramatic  incident  at  Geismar. 
Boniface  had  come  back  to  Germany  strong  in  the 
consciousness  of  papal  sanction  and  the  official  sup- 
port of  the  Prankish  king.  Acting  upon  the  counsel 
of  his  more  sincere  and  enlightened  converts,  the 
Apostle  let  it  be  known  that  he  intended  to  fell  the 
sacred  oak  at  Geismar.  What  a  picture  it  must  have 
been,  the  lonely  hilltop,  crowned  by  a  gnarled  and 
weatherbeaten  giant  of  the  forest,  sole  survivor  of 
many  brethren;  surging  about  the  sacred  enclosure  a 
threatening  crowd  of  angry  folk, — men,  women,  and 
children, — who  have  gathered  to  watch  the  wrath  of 
the  gods  descend  in  swift  punishment  upon  the 
doomed  priest.  But  hold !  Stroke  after  stroke  cuts 
deep  into  the  sacred  wood  and  yet  no  thunderbolt  falls 
from  heaven  upon  the  offending  missionary.  And 
now  the  murmuring  breath  of  the  encircling  forest 
grows  into  a  mighty  blast,  and  the  oak,  for  centuries 
regarded  with  awe  and  veneration,  falls  at  the  feet 
of  Boniface.     With  a  swift  revulsion  of  feeling,  the 


WINFRID,  KNOWN  AS  BONIFACE       15T 

great  throng  cries  out  that  the  God  of  the  foreign 
priest  is  mightier  than  their  own  deities,  and  that  He 
alone  is  worthy  of  their  service. 

Before  many  years  had  gone  by,  the  mission  work 
so  increased  that  Boniface  sent  to  England  for  help- 
ers. His  need,  he  wrote,  was  for  men  and  women  of 
missionary  spirit  whom  he  could  appoint  as  bishops 
or  place  over  monasteries  and  abbeys.  He  asks  also 
for  books,  Gregory's  "Acts  and  Sufferings  of  the 
Martyrs,"  Commentaries  on  St.  Paul,  and  a  volume 
of  the  Prophets  in  plain  handwriting,  for  his  sight  is 
failing.  Strong  and  earnest  men  and  women,  schol- 
arly and  wise,  offered  themselves  at  once  in  response 
to  the  call  of  Boniface  and,  crossing  to  Germany, 
built  up  in  Hesse  and  Thuringia  and  Bavaria  a  series 
of  splendid  schools,  the  influence  of  which  upon  the 
sturdy  Teutons  can  hardly  be  overestimated.  One 
of  these  establishments  was  the  monastery  of  Fritzlar, 
succeeding  the  little  oratory  which  Boniface  had 
erected  out  of  timber  from  the  felled  oak  of  Geismar. 
Over  this  later  foundation  he  placed  an  Englishman 
from  Dorset,  St.  Wictbert,  who,  on  the  thirteenth  of 
August,  is  still  honoured  in  the  little  Old  World  town 
set  about  by  ancient  walls  and  watch  towers  not  far 
removed  in  their  slender  height  and  conical  tops  from 
the  round  towers  of  Ireland. 

Of  the  noble  women  who  thus  early  entered  the 
field  of  missionary  activity,  where  to-day  woman's 
faith  and  zeal  and  tact  are  accomplishing  so  much, 
should  be  mentioned  the  gentle  Lioba,  scholar,  teacher, 
director  of  an  important  mission  institute  at  Bischofs- 
heim,  a  strong  and  beautiful  woman,  the  friend  of 
Queen  Hildegard  and  the  counsellor  of  Boniface; 
Chunihild  and  her  daughter  Bertgith  or  Berathgid, 


158  THE  MONK  OF  NUTSCELLE 

who  were  missionaries  in  Thuringia;  Tecla,  abbess  of 
Kitzingen;  Chunitriid,  a  teacher  in  Bavaria;  and 
Walpurga,  a  Sussex  woman,  with  whom  legend  has 
wrought  most  curiously. 

Walpurga  was  a  sister  of  Wunnibald,  who  laboured 
at  Heidanheim,  where,  in  the  midst  of  the  wildwood, 
he  established  a  Christian  school,  consisting  of  a  few 
humble  dwellings  of  reeds  and  straw.  Another 
brother,  Willibald,  after  far  wanderings,  came  to 
Eichstatt  and  was  made  Bishop  of  that  diocese  by  his 
uncle  Boniface,  his  labours  there  extending  over  a 
period  of  forty-five  years.  From  teaching  in  Lioba's 
institution  at  Tauber  Bischofsheim,  Walpurga  came 
to  Wunnibald's  school,  was  made  abbess  of  the  Bene- 
dictine nunnery,  and  at  her  brother's  death  became 
director  of  his  foundation,  ruling  successfully  both 
these  institutions,  from  which  were  sent  out  many 
labourers  trained  at  her  hands  for  lives  of  missionary 
toil. 

Very  different,  we  must  remember,  were  those  first 
mission  stations  from  the  rich  and  powerful  abbeys  of 
a  later  time.  In  their  beginnings  the  monasteries  of 
the  British  Isles,  of  France  and  Germany  and  the 
Netherlands,  Celtic  and  Benedictine  alike,  were  oases 
of  peace  in  lands  of  discord.  Among  rude  and  ma- 
terialistic peoples,  they  stood  for  a  higher  life,  for 
the  culture  of  the  mind  and  the  soul,  and  on  the  prac- 
tical side  for  the  development  of  the  arts  and  the 
cultivation  of  the  land.  The  members  of  these  re- 
ligious communities  were  first  of  all  missionaries  and 
pastors,  the  spiritual  guides  of  the  people.  But  they 
were  also  intellectual  leaders  and  teachers,  and  many 
of  those  early  monasteries  grew  into  schools  of  wide 
renown.     Such  was  Boniface's  foundation  at  Fulda, 


WINFRID,  KNOWN  AS  BONIFACE       159 

which  became  one  of  the  great  centres  of  mediseval 
learning.  It  was  in  the  monasteries,  too,  that  the 
various  schools  of  mediaeval  literature  grew  up.  At 
Jarrow-on-Tyne  lived  one  of  the  greatest  historians 
of  any  age,  the  venerable  Bede,  and  to  the  ancient 
abbey  of  Whitby  belonged  the  Milton  of  Anglo-Saxon 
poetry.  Others  taught  the  art  of  building  in  stone. 
Everywhere  they  cleared  the  forests  and  built  up 
model  agricultural  establishments,  where  the  methods 
of  farming  were  studied  and  taught.  By  lives  of 
obedience  and  sacrifice,  they  taught  the  virtue  of  self- 
command  so  much  needed  in  the  early  period  of  a 
people's  development.  Thus  more  than  a  thousand 
years  ago  missionary  volunteers  were  winning  Europe 
to  a  glorious  future  by  very  much  the  same  methods 
used  to-day  on  the  mission  fields  of  Asia  and  Africa. 
"  The  monks,"  says  one  historian,^  "  introduced  fruit- 
trees,  flowers,  vegetables,  in  addition  to  teaching  and 
emancipating  the  serfs.  Their  monasteries  were  mis- 
sion stations  which  resembled  ours  in  being  dispen- 
saries for  the  sick,  almshouses  for  the  poor,  and 
nurseries  of  learning." 

In  later  years  Boniface  extended  his  labours  to 
Saxony  and  Bavaria.  By  739  he  had  seen  a  hundred 
thousand  converts  baptized,  great  numbers  of  whom 
were  doubtless  still  ignorant  of  the  real  meaning  of 
the  step  they  were  taking.  For  the  instruction  of 
these  new  converts,  Boniface  laboured  earnestly  to 
found  schools  and  churches  in  such  numbers  that  the 
last  vestiges  of  paganism  should  disappear.  He  him- 
self preached  simple,  practical  sermons,  and  kept  the 
Scriptures  in  the  church  service.  He  fearlessly  de- 
nounced the  laxity  of  life  of  the  Frankish  clergy,  and 
1  Livingston. 


160  THE  MONK  OF  NUTSCELLE 

more  than  once  rebuked  Rome  for  setting  a  bad  exam- 
ple to  the  missionary  churches — and  this  despite  his 
great  reverence  for  the  Holy  See.  We  quote  from  a 
sermon  preached  before  the  sacrament  of  the  Lord's 
Supper.  "  We  address  you,"  he  said,  "  not  as  the 
messengers  of  one  from  whom  you  can  purchase  ex- 
emption with  money,  but  of  one  to  whom  you  are 
bound  by  the  blood  he  shed  for  you."  Though  shar- 
ing the  Roman  reverence  for  the  Latin  language  as 
the  language  of  the  church  ritual,  he  instructed  his 
clergy  to  read  the  Epistles  and  Gospels  in  German  and 
also  to  preach  and  to  teach  certain  prayers  in  the 
native  language. 

Boniface  visited  Rome  a  third  time  in  738.  To 
England  he  was  destined  never  to  return,  though  to 
the  last  he  carried  on  a  correspondence  with  many 
men  and  women  of  influence  in  the  religious  and  state 
life  of  his  native  land  and  followed  its  successes  with 
interest  and  learned  of  its  errors  with  sorrow. 

Boniface  was  now  the  foremost  figure  in  Germany. 
He  had  accomplished  a  gigantic  work  in  reforming  the 
existing  Prankish  church,  in  converting  whole  dis- 
tricts of  pagan  worshippers,  in  organizing  Chris- 
tianity throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land, 
and  everywhere  providing  places  of  worship  for  the 
people.  For  more  than  twenty  years  he  had  enjoyed 
a  primate's  dignity  and  authority.  Yet  in  the  midst 
of  all  this  success  and  honour  and  responsibility,  that 
longing  for  simple  missionary  tasks  that  had  brought 
him  across  the  Channel  so  many  years  before  re- 
turned in  ever  increasing  measure  until,  relinquishing 
the  burdens  which  he  felt  that  some  one  else  might 
now  take  up,  the  venerable  archbishop  in  755  sailed 
down   the    Rhine   to   Utrecht,    whence   he   travelled 


WINFRID,  KNOWN  AS  BONIFACE       161 

slowly  along  the  marshlands  bordering  the  Zuyder 
Zee  into  the  wilds  of  North  Frisia,  where  his  last 
days  were  spent  among  a  people  still  stubbornly 
pagan. 

The  martyr's  reward  came  to  our  missionary  at 
Dokkum  on  Whitsunday  of  the  year  755.  With  a 
little  company  of  fifty  men,  he  was  to  administer  that 
day  the  rite  of  confirmation  to  a  multitude  of  recent 
converts,  whom  he  had  sent  to  their  homes  after  bap- 
tism. When  the  June  sun  rose  over  the  forests  of 
Dokkum,  Boniface  and  his  missionary  helpers  heard 
the  sound  of  an  approaching  multitude  and,  hurrying 
from  their  tents  to  greet  the  returning  Christians, 
found  themselves  facing,  not  the  friendly  faces  of 
their  converts,  but  the  brandished  spear  and  glittering 
battle-axe  of  hostile  savages.  His  fellow-labourers 
would  have  fought  for  their  safety,  but  Boniface  did 
not  permit  it. 

"  Let  us  not  return  evil  for  evil,"  he  said.  "  The 
long-expected  day  has  come,  and  the  time  of  our  de- 
parture is  at  hand.  Strengthen  ye  yourselves  in  the 
Lord,  and  He  will  redeem  your  souls.  Be  not  afraid 
of  those  who  can  only  kill  the  body,  but  put  all  your 
trust  in  God,  who  will  speedily  give  you  an  eternal 
reward,  and  an  entrance  into  His  heavenly  king- 
dom." ^ 

When  the  missionaries  were  slain,  the  Frieslanders 
pillaged  the  mission,  expecting  to  find  great  treasure 
of  gold  and  silver.  Discovering  nothing  but  books, 
they  scattered  the  precious  volumes  over  marsh  and 
woodland  and  went  away  in  disgust.  Some  time 
afterward  men  from  the  South  arrived  on  the  scene  of 
the  great  missionary's  martyrdom,  collected  the  lost 
iMaclear,  "Apostles  of  Mediaeval  Europe." 


162  THE  MONK  OF  NUTSCELLE 

manuscripts,  and  reverently  bore  the  body  of  the 
apostle  to  his  beloved  monastery  of  Fulda,  where  he 
was  buried  with  great  honour.  And  to  all  time  Boni- 
face the  missionary  will  stand  as  a  noble  example  of 
what  love  for  the  Christ  and  for  those  for  whom  He 
died  may  accomplish  in  one  over  whom  the  shadow  of 
hmnan  authority  had  cast  that  spell  of  power,  which 
in  later  years  should  enchain  the  souls  of  men  in  a 
bitter  bondage  at  last  broken  by  another  great  Saxon, 
who  in  sincerity  of  belief  and  power  of  leadership  and 
love  for  humanity  was  of  a  like  order  of  mind  with 
the  Apostle  of  Germany. 


XV 
THE  APOSTLE  OF  THE  NORTH 

Ansgar,  Bishop  of  Hamburg 

The  Challenge 

"  I  am  the  God  Thor,  "  Thou  art  a  God  too, 
I  am  the  War  God,  O  Galilean  ! 

I  am  the  Thunderer !  And  thus  single-handed 

Here  in  my  Northland,  Unto  the  combat. 

My  fastness  and  fortress,  Gauntlet  or  Gospel, 

Reign  I  forever  !  Here  I  defy  thee  !" 

The  Answer 

"  Stronger  than  steel  "  The  dawn  is  not  distant, 
Is  the  sword  of  the  Spirit ;  Nor  is  the  night  starless  ; 

Swifter  than  arrows  Love  is  eternal  ! 

The  light  of  the  truth  is,  God  is  still  God,  and 

Greater  than  anger  His  faith  shall  not  fail  ua  ; 

Is  love,  and  subdueth  !  Christ  is  eternal  !  " 

— Longfellow,  "Saga  of  King  01  af." 

THE  morning  of  history  was  breaking  over  the 
Danish  peninsula.  For  centuries  event  had 
succeeded  event  in  the  Northland,  tribe  had 
M^arred  against  tribe,  migration  had  followed  migra- 
tion, all  unheeded  by  the  rest  of  Europe.  It  was  as 
if  the  dense  seafogs  that  hover  over  the  grey,  tem- 
pestuous waters  and  settle  heavily  over  town  and  coun- 
tryside, had  wrapped  these  peoples  in  their  embrace 
and  shut  them  out  from  the  view  of  civilization.  Oc- 
casionally out  of  the  mists  heroic  figures  had  issued, 

163 


164        THE  APOSTLE  OF  THE  NORTH 

invincible  in  their  strength,  yet  by  no  means  unwilling 
to  accept  and  profit  by  the  higher  knowledge  of  the 
peoples  with  whom  their  wanderings  brought  them  in 
touch.  Such  were  the  sturdy  folk  who  followed  the 
coming  of  the  "  three  keels  "  from  Jutland  to  Britain, 
^thelberht  himself,  throwing  the  gates  of  his  king- 
dom wide  open  to  Roman  missionaries,  was  only  a 
century  and  a  half  removed  from  the  wild,  cruel  life 
of  the  Danish  coasts,  which  at  a  later  time  were  to 
flaunt  the  dusky  raven  banner  throughout  this  same 
British  isle  and  place  their  princes  upon  the  English 

throne. 

The  great  king  of  the  Franks,  whose  iron  hand  had 
united  the  Gauls  by  the  western  sea  with  the  tribes 
of  Eastern  Europe  in  a  vast  confederacy,  had  gone 
forth  to  meet  the  great  King,  and  for  eight  years 
his  son,  known  to  history  as  Louis  the  Pious,  had  held 
the  Imperial  sceptre.  Charlemagne's  dream  of  the 
conversion  of  the  North  was  still  a  vision  only,  and 
in  the  disturbed  state  of  the  Scandinavian  countries 
seemed  little  likely  of  speedy  accomplishment.  Yet 
among  the  desolate  heaths  of  Jutland  a  king  was 
struggling  for  his  crown,  and  in  the  Prankish  monas- 
tery of  Corbie  a  monk  was  being  trained,  who,  the 
one  by  his  royal  influence,  the  other  by  his  consecrated 
devotion,  should  blaze  a  path  for  the  entrance  of  a 
new  civilization  in  northern  lands.  The  king  was 
Harald  Klag,  who  in  the  year  822  appealed  in  person 
to  the  Emperor  Louis  for  aid  in  driving  the  rival 
claimant  from  his  throne ;  the  monk  was  one  Ansgar. 
born  not  far  from  Amiens  and  from  childhood  trained 
in  the  monastery  of  Corbie.  Perhaps  because  he  saw 
in  this  political  strife  an  opening  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  his  father's  plans  in  the  beginning  of  a  Scan- 


ANSGAR,  BISHOP  OF  HAMBURG        165 

dinavian  mission,  Louis  promised  his  help  to  the 
banished  king.  At  least,  the  intervention  of  the  Em- 
peror in  the  affairs  of  the  Danish  state  opened  the 
way  for  the  first  missionary  work  in  Denmark,  which 
was  begun  by  Ebbo,  Archbishop  of  Rheims,  and  a 
monk  of  noble  birth  named  Halitgar. 

In  the  face  of  many  difficulties  these  missionaries 
seem  to  have  accomplished  very  little  among  the  peo- 
ple, but  Harald  and  his  queen,  together  with  some  of 
the  courtiers,  came  to  Ingelheim,  near  Mainz,  for  bap- 
tism. There,  in  a  palace  built  by  Charlemagne  and 
long  a  favourite  residence  of  the  Frankish  emperors, 
Harald  and  his  following  were  entertained  by  their 
benefactor,  and  the  great  hall  with  its  pillars  of  beau- 
tiful marble  and  its  Italian  mosaics,  resounded  with 
the  good  cheer  by  which  the  hospitable  emperor 
bound  this  still  half-pagan  prince  to  his  cause.  Louis 
himself  became  godfather  to  the  Danish  king  at  bap- 
tism, and  arranged  to  send  back  with  Harald  other 
missionaries,  who  should  instruct  the  Danes  in  the 
principles  of  the  gospel  and  win  new  converts.  We 
know  that  Harald  was  not  enthusiastic  over  this  mis- 
sion, giving  it  little  attention  until  he  learned  that 
Hadelbod,  Bishop  of  Cologne,  was  fitting  out  a  splen- 
did ship  for  the  conveyance  of  the  missionaries  to  Den- 
mark, when  suddenly  the  Danish  prince  became  very 
anxious  to  join  company  with  the  monk.  One  cannot 
help  wondering  how  much  the  hope  of  receiving  aid 
from  the  Frankish  emperor  in  regaining  his  kingdom 
had  influenced  Harald  in  his  acceptance  of  Chris- 
tianity. But,  whatever  his  motive  may  have  been, 
the  prince  certainly  became  the  instrument  by  which 
missionary  enterprise  was  first  undertaken  in  Den- 
mark. 


166        THE  APOSTLE  OF  THE  NORTH 

The  monk  chosen  to  undertake  this  mission  in  Scan- 
dinavia was  Ansgar  of  Corbie.  In  the  year  that 
Harald  Klag  first  appealed  to  the  Emperor,  Ansgar 
had  left  Corbie  with  several  brethren  for  a  newly  es- 
tablished monastery,  Corvey,  on  the  Weser  at  a  place 
now  known  as  Hoxter.  Although  at  this  time  only 
twenty-two,  Ansgar  possessed  so  much  ability  that  he 
was  made  director  of  the  educational  work  of  the  in- 
stitution, beside  being  commissioned  to  preach  to  the 
people  of  the  surrounding  country.  Corvey  was  within 
Saxon  territory  and  many  Saxon  youth  were  being 
trained  in  the  monastery  for  work  among  their  own 
people,  whom  Charlemagne  had  forced  into  baptism, — 
an  excellent  preparation  for  Ansgar's  future  missionary 
labours.  Young  as  he  was,  he  accomplished  his  work 
so  well  and  showed  so  fine  a  spirit  in  all  he  undertook 
that  his  superior.  Abbot  Wala,  was  able  to  recommend 
him  to  the  Emperor  as  the  best  fitted,  and  indeed  the 
only  one  of  the  monks  capable  of  directing  the  new 
mission.  The  Prankish  teacher  welcomed  his  com- 
mission eagerly.  He  had  once  dreamed  of  being 
caught  up  into  the  presence  of  the  Eternal  and  hearing 
out  of  the  ineffable  glory  a  voice  say,  "  Go,  and  return 
to  me  again  crowned  with  martyrdom."  Because  of 
this  vision  he  was  the  more  willing  to  undertake  a 
work  which  others  shunned  for  its  dangers.  Only  one 
of  his  companions  volunteered  to  accompany  him,  and 
no  servant  was  willing  to  face  the  perils  of  pagan 
Jutland  for  even  so  kindly  a  master  as  Ansgar. 

The  period  before  the  missionary's  departure  for  his 
new  labours  was  spent  in  diligent  study  of  the  Scrip- 
tures, which  had  already  become  to  him  a  source  of 
life.  Remembering  the  legend-burdened  biographies 
which  have  often  so  effectively  obscured  the  real  char- 


ANSGAR,  BISHOP  OF  HAMBURG        167 

acter  and  work  of  the  early  saints,  and  the  tendency  of 
the  Church  in  later  centuries  to  reverence  human  au- 
thority, we  cannot  fail  to  find  a  suggestive  hint  in  this 
statement  and  in  Ansgar's  own  view  of  miracle-work- 
ing power. 

*'  If  I  could  but  think  myself  worthy,"  he  said,  "  of 
such  a  favour  from  the  Lord,  I  would  pray  Him  to 
grant  me  but  one  miracle,  that  out  of  me,  by  His  grace. 
He  would  make  a  good  man." 

With  the  Danish  prince,  the  two  men  sailed  from 
Wyk  te  Duerstade,  then  Dorstatum,  in  826,  and  for 
nearly  two  years  laboured  in  Denmark.  Like  the 
English  and  Celtic  missionaries,  and  their  successors 
in  our  own  era,  Ansgar  began  his  work  by  founding 
a  school  in  which  native  lads  were  trained  for  teaching 
and  preaching  among  their  own  people.  Unhappily 
for  the  success  of  the  mission,  his  fellow-labourer, 
Autbert,  fell  ill  and  was  obliged  to  return  to  Corvey, 
while  King  Harald,  hated  for  his  adoption  of  an  alien 
faith,  was  once  more  driven  from  the  country,  leaving 
it  inexpedient  for  Ansgar  to  remain  in  Denmark. 

But  if  for  a  time  Ansgar's  work  was  interrupted  in 
Jutland,  there  still  remained  a  field  for  his  labours 
white  to  the  harvest  beyond  the  skargard  keeping  its 
lonely  watch  and  ward  over  the  Swedish  coast.  As  in 
the  case  of  Ireland,  Christianity  had  gradually  gained 
a  footing  in  Sweden  through  the  commerce  which  its 
inhabitants  carried  on  with  central  Europe  and  by 
Christian  captives  brought  into  the  Northland  by  war 
or  pillage.  Those  who  had  accepted  the  faith  were 
anxious  for  instruction,  and  in  seeking  it  naturally 
turned  to  the  Christian  emperor  from  whose  subjects 
they  had  first  learned  the  way  of  life.  In  response  to 
their  appeal,  Louis  sent  Ansgar  to  this  new  field  on 


168        THE  APOSTLE  OF  THE  NORTH 

his  return  from  Denmark,  giving  him  rich  presents  for 
King  Olaf. 

The  mission  lasted  a  year  and  a  half.  At  the  end 
of  that  time  Ansgar  returned  to  the  emperor's  court, 
reporting  the  establishment  of  churches  and  the  found- 
ing of  schools  and  many  converts  won,  some  like 
Heigeir,  men  of  much  influence,  while  not  less  impor- 
tant a  work,  those  already  Christians  had  been  in- 
structed and  strengthened  in  the  worthy  following  of 
the  Christ  they  had  accepted.  Louis  now  felt  that  the 
time  had  come  for  such  an  organization  of  the  work  as 
his  father  had  desired,  and  created  a  northern  arch- 
bishopric with  its  see  at  Hamburg  and  Ansgar  as 
metropolitan.  The  monk  of  Corvey  thus  became  at 
the  age  of  thirty  joint  director  with  Ebbo  of  all  the 
missionary  work  in  Scandinavia.  Over  the  mission 
in  Sweden  Ansgar  set  one  Gauzbert  who  directed 
the  work  from  Wilna,  a  monastery  in  Denmark,  the 
revenue  from  which  supported  the  labourers  in  the 
northern  peninsula.  Gauzbert  laboured  many  years 
among  the  sturdy  Scandinavians,  leading  not  a  few  of 
his  hearers  into  newness  of  life. 

Ansgar  now  turned  once  more  to  the  people  among 
whom  his  first  efforts  had  been  made.  To  prepare 
labourers  for  the  field  in  Denmark,  he  founded  a 
school  at  Hamburg,  and  ransomed  promising  lads  to 
be  educated  there.  In  these  labours  fourteen  years 
slipped  away,  while  the  heathen  king  Horik,  who  had 
succeeded  Harald  Klag,  persecuted  the  Danish  labour- 
ers, and  the  death  of  Louis  brought  a  division  of 
Charlemagne's  empire.  Dissension  among  Louis' 
sons  emboldened  the  eager  Northmen,  hovering  on 
the  Prankish  frontier,  to  raid  after  raid  within  the 
empire's  rich  dominions.     Finally,  in  845,  the  Danish 


ANSGAR,  BISHOP  OF  HAMBURG        169 

king  led  an  army  of  Norse  warriors  against  the  mis- 
sion's headquarters  at  Hamburg,  burned  the  monastic 
buildings  and  the  library  with  which  Louis  had  en- 
dowed the  school,  and  wasted  the  whole  country/ 
The  destruction  of  his  see  and  later  the  loss  of  his 
other  monastery  at  Turholt  in  Flanders  seriously  in- 
terrupted Ansgar's  missionary  work  in  Denmark.  In 
the  same  year,  also,  Gauzbert's  mission  in  Sweden 
was  attacked  by  incensed  pagans  and  Gauzbert  himself 
driven  from  the  country. 

The  years  of  patient  waiting  and  labour  and  prayer 
had  their  reward  at  last,  however,  as  they  must  ever 
have,  and  miracles  greater  than  any  yet  related  by 
monastic  chronicler  were  wrought  among  the  fierce 
North  folk  of  the  two  peninsulas.  The  missionary 
basis  being  strengthened  by  the  union  of  the  sees  of 
Hamburg  and  Bremen,  Ansgar  addressed  himself  to 
the  stubborn  old  pagan  Horik,  and  by  persuasion  and 
gifts  gained  his  permission  to  preach  unhindered 
within  his  borders  the  message  for  which  only  a  few 
years  earlier  the  Danish  king  had  lighted  the  fires  of 
Hamburg.  And  so  a  church  was  built  in  Schleswig 
and  the  timid  found  courage  to  confess  their  faith  in 
Christ  and  month  by  month  new  converts  were  won 
and  the  doom  of  paganism  in  Denmark  was  sealed, 
though  its  persecutions  continued  for  yet  many 
years. 

Meanwhile  Ansgar  had  not  forgotten  the  Christians 
of  Sweden  and,  as  soon  as  he  was  able  to  secure  a 
labourer,  reopened  his  mission  in  the  northern  penin- 
sula.    The  new  missionary  was  sustained  in  the  face 

^  Ansgar's  only  words  as  he  looked  out  over  the  ruins  of  his 
monastery  were:  "The  Lord  hath  given,  and  the  Lord  hath 
taken  away;  blessed  be  the  name  of  the  Lord." 


170        THE  APOSTLE  OF  THE  NORTH 

of  pagan  opposition  only  by  the  loyalty  of  the  Norse 
governor  Heigeir,  who  through  all  the  years  of 
storm  and  stress  had  remained  true  to  the  faith  taught 
him  by  Ansgar.  At  Heigeir's  death  in  852,  the  long- 
ing for  solitude  drew  the  hermit-missionary  back  to 
the  homeland,  and  Ansgar  went  in  person  to  the 
Swedish  mission.  On  his  arrival  at  Birka,  the  Arch- 
bishop found  himself  facing  a  condition  very  like  one 
sometimes  confronting  our  missionaries  in  non-Chris- 
tian lands  to-day.  Forced  to  recognize  Christianity 
as  a  dangerous  rival,  the  pagan  priests  had  deified  one 
of  the  popular  hero-kings  of  the  earlier  days  and 
thousands,  carried  away  by  the  new  cult,  had  inter- 
ested themselves  in  the  erection  of  a  temple  to  be  con- 
secrated to  Erich  and  in  the  establishment  of  festivals 
in  his  honour.  Here  was  a  whole  city  madly  throw- 
ing itself  into  a  revival  of  heathen  worship,  and 
by  popular  prejudice  making  it  almost  impossible 
for  an  alien  teacher  to  obtain  a  hearing.  When  Ans- 
gar learned  what  the  pagan  priests  had  accomplished, 
he  invited  King  Olaf  to  a  great  dinner  and,  by  his 
courtly  manner,  the  gifts  which  he  had  brought,  and 
the  recommendation  of  King  Horik,  his  one-time  per- 
secutor, gained  a  promise  from  the  Swedish  sovereign 
to  summon  an  assembly  of  the  people  and  to  submit  to 
them  the  question  of  giving  toleration  to  the  Christian 
faith.  This  promise  King  Olaf  was  not  slow  in  ful- 
filling, with  the  result  that  the  royal  influence  over- 
balanced the  zeal  of  the  heathen  priests  and  Ansgar 
was  left  free  to  continue  his  work.  He  remained  a 
few  months  longer,  arranging  the  affairs  of  the  mis- 
sion, which  he  left  in  charge  of  his  companion,  Erim- 
bert. 

The  next  years  saw  the  death  of  King  Horik,  who 


Steinhaiiser 

ST.     ANSGARIUS    RELEASING     HEATHEN     BOY    FROM     YOKE    OF 

PAGANISM 


ANSGAR,  BISHOP  OF  HAMBURG        171 

had  protected  the  Danish  mission,  akhough  he  had 
never  himself  renounced  the  gods  of  his  fathers.  His 
successor  fell  under  the  influence  of  a  pagan  counsellor, 
and  for  a  time  the  churches  were  closed  and  persecu- 
tion prevailed.  Then  a  change  of  ministers  led  to  the 
recall  of  Ansgar's  assistant  in  Denmark,  liberty  of 
worship  was  again  granted,  and  a  second  missionary 
campaign  begun. 

So  the  months  and  years  slipped  away,  while  the 
faithful  Ansgar  planned  new  conquests  for  his  mission 
fields  in  Denmark  and  Sweden.  He  had,  besides,  the 
duties  of  his  immediate  diocese,  and  laboured  with  his 
hands  for  his  support  and  the  furtherance  of  the  work. 
Full  of  justice  and  mercy,  he  felt  the  cause  of  the  poor 
and  the  oppressed,  as  the  following  story  will  prove. 
It  happened  not  long  before  his  death  that  certain 
slaves  who  had  escaped  from  their  masters  were  cap- 
tured in  Holstein  and  held  by  powerful  chieftains  of 
that  province.  The  veteran  missionary  at  once  inter- 
ested himself  in  their  release,  and  when  other  means 
failed,  went  in  person  to  the  district,  demanding  the 
freedom  of  the  captives.  And  such  was  Ansgar's 
power  over  even  these  pagan  warriors  that  they  dared 
not  disobey  his  word. 

After  sujfTering  some  months  from  a  painful  sick- 
ness, which  he  bore  without  complaint  and  even  with 
cheerfulness,  the  "  Apostle  of  the  North  "  passed  to 
his  reward  on  the  second  of  February,  865,  praying 
for  his  enemies  and  repeating  the  words,  "  The  Lord 
be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner."  Though  at  the  end  he 
entered  his  Master's  presence  without  the  martyr's 
crown  of  his  dream,  he  bore  with  him  what  was  far 
better,  the  memory  of  years  of  faithful  service  for 
his  f  ellowmen,  a  service  which  had  planted  Christianity 


172        THE  APOSTLE  OF  THE  NORTH 

too  firmly  in  Scandinavia  for  it  ever  again  to  be  en- 
tirely crushed  out. 

"  He  was,"  says  an  historian  of  our  day/  "  one  of 
the  most  beautiful  characters  in  the  whole  mediaeval 
period.  In  charity,  personal  exposure,  fearlessness  of 
danger,  and  sublime  devotion  to  his  work,  he  was  un- 
surpassed by  any  of  his  time." 

In  the  years  following  Ansgar's  death,  the  work  he 
had  begun  w^as  carried  forward  by  his  pupil  and 
biographer,  Rimbert.  But  many  years  of  persecution 
were  yet  to  follow.  When  Svend  ascended  the  Danish 
throne,  despite  two  centuries  of  missionary  activity, 
large  numbers  of  his  subjects  were  still  worshippers 
of  the  old  Norse  gods  and  carried  into  their  English 
conquests  all  the  cruelty  of  a  strength  untempered  by 
Christian  mercy.  Yet  from  these  very  conquests  there 
came  into  the  homeland  influences  which  fulfilled  the 
prayers  of  Ansgar  and  Rimbert.  The  great  Canute 
accepted  the  Christian  faith  in  England  and  became 
the  means  by  which  the  Church  was  at  last  firmly 
established  in  his  native  land. 

In  like  manner,  through  buffetings  and  persecutions 
and  defeats,  the  religion  of  the  Christ  came  to  its  own 
in  Sweden  and  Norway.  In  the  latter  country  Chris- 
tianity triumphed  under  Olaf  the  Saint  in  the  eleventh 
century.  In  the  same  century  the  most  formidable 
stronghold  of  Swedish  paganism,  the  beautiful  old 
temple  at  Upsala,  was  burned  amid  much  rejoicing 
and  the  All-Father  was  once  more  worshipped  by  a 
people  who  in  remote  ages  had  bowed  down  before 
Him  on  lonely  mountain  tops  or  in  the  solitudes  of  the 
dark  forests,  dimly  understanding  His  power,  but  fail- 
ing to  understand  His  love. 

ijohn  Fletcher  Hurst,"  Short  History  of  the  Christian  Church." 


XVI 

MESSENGERS  AMONG  THE  SLAVS 

Cyril  (Constantine)  and  Methodius 

"Whoever  fights,  whoever  falls, 
Justice  conquers  evermore. 
Justice  after  as  before, — 
And  he  who  battles  on  her  side, 
God,  though  he  were  ten  times  slain, 
Crowns  him  victor  glorified, 
Victor  over  death  and  pain." 

— Emerson,  "  Voluntaries^ 

EIGHT  centuries  had  passed  since  the  Apostle  to 
the  Gentiles  first  preached  the  good  news  of  the 
Christ  in  the  prosperous  pagan  seaport  of 
Thessalonica,  gaining  from  out  that  city  of  materialism 
and  false  faiths  a  church  which  he  could  address  in 
after  years  as  "  his  hope,  and  joy,  and  crown  of  re- 
joicing." Long  ago  the  gospel  for  which  Paul  had 
been  driven  from  city  to  city  of  Asia  and  of  Europe 
had  triumphed,  outwardly  at  least,  in  the  Macedonian 
capital,  and  pagan  temple  had  become  Christian 
church,  and  the  voice  of  prayer  had  sounded  where  the 
incense  of  heathen  sacrifice  had  been  wont  to  rise. 
Yet,  away  to  the  north,  beyond  the  snow-capped  moun- 
tains, still  lay  regions  all  but  untouched  by  Christian 
influences,  and  to  these  Thessalonica  was  to  send  two 
of  the  greatest  missionaries  ever  commissioned  by  the 
Eastern    Church    to     Slavic    peoples.     They    were 

173 


174     MESSENGERS  AMONG  THE  SLAVS 

brothers,  Constantine  and  Methodius,  who  belonged  to 
a  family  held  in  high  esteem  in  Thessalonica,  and  were 
themselves  men  of  talent,  the  one  rising  to  positions  of 
political  responsibility,  the  other  choosing  a  philoso- 
pher's life  and  elected  by  the  state  to  a  professorship 
of  philosophy  in  Thessalonica.  When  they  had  be- 
come marked  men  in  their  professions,  the  brothers 
gave  up  their  secular  careers,  took  upon  themselves 
monastic  vows,  and  in  due  time  were  chosen  for  mis- 
sionary service  in  Moravia. 

To  understand  their  mission,  it  will  be  necessary  to 
review  briefly  the  course  of  events  in  eastern  Europe 
following  the  labours  of  Wulfila.  In  the  year  402 
Alaric  the  Goth  led  his  vast  armies  westward  into 
Italy,  leaving  destruction  in  the  Roman  provinces 
through  which  he  passed.  The  Gothic  migrations  of 
the  following  years  and,  above  all,  the  irresistible 
march  of  the  Huns  across  Europe  laid  desolate  the 
walled  cities  on  the  Empire's  frontier  and  devastated 
the  whole  country.  To  these  deserted  places  in  course 
of  time  came  tribes  from  the  north  and  east  and  where 
the  ordered  provinces  of  Rhsetia  and  Noricum  and 
Pannonia  had  been,  the  Boii  and  the  Slavs  founded  the 
kingdoms  of  Bavaria  and  Moravia,  the  latter  includ- 
ing, besides  the  present  territory,  much  of  what  is  now 
Upper  Hungary.  In  788  Bavaria  became  a  duchy  of 
Charlemagne's  empire.  Moravia  also  acknowledged 
the  suzerainty  of  the  great  Frank,  and  it  was  by  west- 
ern agencies  that  the  knowledge  of  Christianity  first 
came  to  the  Moravians. 

Among  the  ruins  of  the  old  Juvavia,  Bishop  Rupert 
of  Worms,  who  came  into  Bavaria  by  invitation  of  its 
Duke  in  the  latter  part  of  the  seventh  century,  founded 
a  church  which  was  destined  to  become,  under  Boni- 


CYRIL  AND  METHODIUS  175 

face,  the  seat  of  the  episcopal  see  of  Salzburg.  Dur- 
ing the  years  when  Willibrord  was  labouring  to  con- 
vert the  men  of  Frisia,  the  German  Rupert  travelled 
throughout  Bavaria,  preaching  and  baptizing.  A  hun- 
dred years  later  Arno,  the  friend  of  Alcuin  and  the 
Emperor,  was  appointed  to  the  see  of  Salzburg,  and 
spent  the  remainder  of  his  life  in  building  up  an  edu- 
cational system  in  Bavaria  and  in  superintending  mis- 
sionary work  in  the  western  portions  of  Moravia. 
The  great  hindrance  to  this  work  and  its  extension 
eastward  was  the  insistence  of  the  missionaries  upon 
the  use  of  the  Latin  language  in  all  the  church  ritual. 
With  no  Bible  in  the  Slavic  tongue,  and  the  church 
service  in  an  unknown  language,  it  is  small  wonder 
that  the  real  spirit  of  Christianity  was  long  in  finding 
place  in  the  ]\Ioravian  provinces. 

When  the  magic  of  the  great  Emperor's  name  had 
ceased  to  be,  these  restless  Slavic  peoples  threw  off 
their  foreign  yoke,  and  Great  Moravia  became  an  inde- 
pendent kingdom.  Its  ruler,  Rostislav,  realized  that 
the  onmarch  of  the  Christian  Church  would  soon 
sweep  away  the  worship  of  his  country's  gods,  and 
sent  to  Constantinople  for  teachers  to  instruct  his  peo- 
ple in  the  triumphant  faith  of  the  south  and  to  trans- 
late into  the  Slavic  tongue  the  sacred  writings  of  the 
Christians.  And  so  Methodius  and  Constantine  en- 
tered the  mission  fields  of  the  north  and  the  careful 
scholarship  and  linguistic  talent  of  these  two  men  were 
employed  in  translating  the  Bible  and  service  books 
into  the  native  tongue  of  the  Slavs.  We  know  very 
little  about  these  Greek  Christians,  it  is  true,  but  we 
need  only  the  fact  that  throughout  their  missionary 
labours  they  stood  firmly  for  a  Bible  in  the  hands  of 
the  people  and  preaching  and  ritual  in  the  native  tongue 


176     MESSENGERS  AMONG  THE  SLAVS 

to  enlighten  us  as  to  the  character  of  their  Christian 
teaching.  They  deemed  the  spirit  of  a  faith  that 
should  be  exemplified  in  daily  living  of  far  greater  im- 
portance than  a  form  of  ritual  and  a  magic  of  words. 
Not  otherwise  can  we  satisfactorily  account  for  their 
zeal  in  labouring  to  build  the  church  in  Moravia  upon 
the  sure  foundation  of  a  clear  understanding  of  the 
gospel  they  were  accepting.  If  only  the  ecclesiastics 
of  that  day  and  a  later  time  had  used  the  energy  spent 
in  struggling  for  matters  of  minor  value  in  co- 
operative efforts  to  bring  a  pure  and  undefiled  religion 
of  the  heart  to  their  pagan  neighbours,  what  a  power 
for  good  might  have  been  built  up  in  Eastern  Europe. 

Of  the  after  life  of  these  men  we  have  at  least  an 
outline  of  fact.  About  the  year  868  Constantine  and 
Methodius  were  summoned  to  Rome,  on  what  pretext 
we  do  not  know.  If  prejudices  against  their  methods 
of  work  existed,  the  missionaries  succeeded  in  remov- 
ing them  and  in  gaining  the  Pope's  approval  of  the 
Slavic  ritual.  Methodius  returned  to  his  labours  in 
Moravia,  but  his  brother  remained  in  the  Imperial 
City,^  according  to  tradition  dying  there  on  the  four- 
teenth of  February  of  the  next  year.  Before  entering 
the  Moravian  field,  he  had  laboured  among  the  Khazars 
of  the  Crimea,  translating  the  service-books  into  their 
tongue  and  at  least  a  portion  of  the  Scriptures,  so  that 
by  far  the  best  years  of  his  life  had  been  consecrated 
to  the  missionary  cause,  to  which  he  had  devoted  his 
splendid  intellectual  powers. 

After  the  death  of  Rostislav,  Methodius  was  again 
called  to  Rome  to  explain  his  methods  in  evangelizing 
Moravia,  and  again  won  respect  for  his  labours  by  his 

1  He  entered  a  monastery,  probably  on  account  of  illness,  and 
received  the  name  of  Cyril. 


CYRIL  AND  METHODIUS  17T 

intelligent  and  zealous  report  of  the  work  being  accom- 
plished among  this  erstwhile  pagan  folk.  Still  the 
missionary  was  not  allowed  to  continue  his  labours  in 
quiet,  and  the  jealousy  of  the  Salzburgian  clergy,  who 
held  to  the  Roman  ritual,  and  their  attempts  to  cast 
discredit  upon  his  labours  saddened  the  last  years  of 
his  life  and  claimed  much  of  the  strength  he  might 
have  employed  in  the  accomplishment  of  plans  for 
evangelistic  conquest  on  the  still  heathen  frontiers. 
He  kept  the  papal  sanction  throughout  the  struggle, 
however,  and  never  faltered  in  the  principles  on  which 
he  based  his  ministrations.  Before  such  strength  of 
purpose,  of  whatever  time  or  people,  after  ages  must 
bow  in  admiration.  May  the  centuries  yet  see  the  ful- 
filment of  the  missionary-monk's  great  dream  in  a  new 
and  grander  Christian  Slavonia. 

During  these  years  Methodius  extended  his  activity 
into  Servia  and  Croatia,  but  after  his  death,  which  oc- 
curred in  885,  the  Slavonian  clergy  were  largely  driven 
out  of  the  territory  in  which  he  had  preached,  and  no 
other  great  leader  arose  to  continue  the  work  of  the 
Thessalonian  missionary.  Through  all  the  centuries 
since  that  day  political  turmoil  and  the  deadening  ef- 
fects of  ritualism  have  kept  the  Slavic  peoples  of  the 
Balkan  peninsula  in  ignorance  of  the  free  gospel  Paul 
sought  to  bring  to  Eastern  Europe.  Let  us  remember 
these  facts  in  our  judgment  of  the  Slav  who  comes 
to-day  to  our  shores  and  who  will  perhaps  return  to 
his  native  land  carrying  there  the  riches  or  the  poverty 
with  which  we  endow  him. 

In  this  same  ninth  century  the  Russian  Slavs  were 
united  under  Ruric  and  his  brothers,  Scandinavian 
warriors.  The  wife  of  Ruric's  nephew  Igor  is  a  well- 
known  name  in  Russian  annals;  for  Queen  Olga  was  a 


178     MESSENGERS  AMONG  THE  SLAVS 

woman  of  political  sagacity  and  imperious  spirit,  not 
one  willingly  to  occupy  a  secondary  place  at  court. 
For  a  time  regent  of  the  kingdom  and  manifesting 
ruthless  vengeance  upon  her  enemies,  after  her  son 
came  to  the  throne  she  journeyed  to  Constantinople, 
was  instructed  in  the  Christian  faith,  and  on  her  return 
to  Russia  sought  the  conversion  of  the  king,  but  to  no 
avail.  Not  for  many  years  thereafter  was  Russia  to 
renounce  her  Slavic  gods,  and  then  only  upon  com- 
mand of  King  Vladimir.  Yet  with  the  King  himself 
acceptance  of  Christianity  seems  to  have  meant  real 
conversion,  and  the  prince,  who  had  sounded  the 
depths  and  hollo wness  of  evil-doing,  after  a  vain  at- 
tempt to  find  peace  in  the  worship  of  his  pagan  deities, 
sent  an  embassy  to  Constantinople  to  inquire  into 
the  mysteries  of  the  Christian  faith  was  later  bap- 
tized by  the  Greek  Patriarch,  and  became  in  very 
truth,  according  to  his  knowledge  and  his  age,  "  a 
new  man  in  Christ  Jesus."  Nevertheless  Vladimir 
was  a  sovereign  with  royal  rights,  and  if  his  sub- 
jects were  not  willing  to  come  otherwise,  was  it 
not  good  for  them  to  be  brought  forcibly  into  the 
Kingdom  of  the  King  of  Kings  ?  The  great  god  Rerun 
was  thrown  into  the  river  Dnieper,  and  on  a  day  of 
the  year  992  the  Slavs  of  Novgorod  were  summoned 
to  the  river  for  baptism  by  the  Greek  priests  whom 
Vladimir  had  brought  from  the  Empire.  So  the  end 
of  open  idolatry  came  in  this  great  Slavic  stronghold, 
but  the  living  Christ  is  not  yet  known  in  His  beauty  in 
the  Russian  Empire. 


XVII 

MARTYRS  FOR  THEIR  FAITH 

Trudpert,  Kilian,  the  Hewalds,  Wenceslaus, 
Adalbert,  and  Gottschalk 

"  The  Son  of  God  goes  forth  to  war, 
A  kingly  crown  to  gain  : 
His  blood-red  banner  streams  afar  : 

Who  follows  in  His  train  ? 
Who  best  can  drink  His  cup  of  woe 

Triumphant  over  pain, 
Who  patient  bears  His  cross  below, 
He  follows  in  His  train." 

— Reginald  Heber. 

ALONG  the  eastern  bank  of  the  storied  Rhine,  in 
Southern  Germany,  there  stretches  a  vast  area 
^  of  romantic  country  which,  by  its  quaint 
legends,  yearly  invites  hundreds  of  travellers  to  its 
sombre  yet  irresistibly  beautiful  reaches  of  fir  and  pine. 
This  attractive  region  is  the  world-famous  Schwarz- 
wald,  or  Black  Forest,  extending  over  nearly  two  thou- 
sand square  miles  of  rugged  mountains  and  secluded 
valleys,  from  Basle  to  Lake  Constance,  and  northward 
again  to  the  Rhine  at  Baden.  A  summer  pilgrimage 
in  the  cool  of  these  woodland  ways  would  seem  in 
our  time  an  ideal  holiday,  a  joy  to  be  remembered  long 
afterward  in  the  dust  of  the  city's  crowded  streets. 
Far  otherwise  must  the  gloomy  depths  of  the  forest 
have  appeared  to  the  missionaries  of  the  seventh  cen- 
tury as,  on  foot  and  often  alone,  they  braved  the  un- 

179 


180  MARTYRS  FOR  THEIR  FAITH 

known  terrors  of  this  great  wilderness.  "Away  it 
stretched  from  the  fair  Rhineland,  wave  after  wave 
of  oak  and  alder,  beech  and  pine,  God  alone  knew  how 
far,  into  the  land  of  night  and  wonder,  and  the  infinite 
unknown,  full  of  elk  and  bison,  bear  and  wolf,  lynx 
and  glutton,  and  perhaps  of  worse  beasts  still."  ^ 
During  the  years  of  Irish  missionary  zeal  on  the  Con- 
tinent, we  may  imagine  many  a  dark-robed  figure 
threading  these  wilderness  paths,  lying  down  to  rest 
at  night  in  some  sheltered  spot,  with  only  God  to  pro- 
tect them  from  the  perils  of  the  dark  and  lonely  forest. 
Few  of  these  missionary  heroes  are  known  to  us  by 
name,  fewer  still  are  real  and  living  figures.  Colum- 
banus  and  Gallus  we  have  already  followed  from  per- 
secution in  France  to  a  new  field  of  labour  on  the  Bo- 
densee.  Another  Celtic  monk,  Fridolin  by  name,  came 
to  the  Rhine  not  many  years  after  the  death  of  Gallus, 
and  founded  a  monastery  on  the  island  of  Sackingen. 
Still  another  is  written  in  the  pages  of  history  as  the 
Martyr  of  the  Black  Forest. 

The  old  Roman  Borbetomagus  built  upon  the  site 
of  the  Worms  of  Luther's  day  and  our  own,  had  be- 
come by  the  seventh  century  a  stronghold  of  the  Celtic 
church  in  Germany.  From  this  city,  in  the  early  years 
of  the  same  century,  we  are  told  that  an  Irish  monk 
named  Trudpert  set  out  to  the  westward  to  found  in 
the  midst  of  the  Schwarzwald  a  mission  centre  from 
which  he  might  carry  the  gospel  to  the  scattered  hab- 
itations of  the  Franconian  Germans.  On  his  arrival 
in  the  Rhine  district  Trudpert  would  seem  to  have  ap- 
pealed to  the  prince  of  the  country  for  protection,  but 
betrayed  by  the  men  whom  Othbert  appointed  to  ac- 
company him  in  his  search  for  a  suitable  site  for  his 
iMaclear,  "Apostles  of  Mediaeval  Europe." 


TRUDPERT,  KILIAN  181 

monastery,  this  man  of  God  was  saved  for  his  few 
years  of  service  only  by  his  own  vigilance.  Among 
protecting  mountains  he  came  at  last  upon  a  pleasant, 
secluded  vale,  where  he  erected  a  rude  monastery,  la- 
bouring himself  diligently  with  the  helpers  sent  from 
Othbert's  court,  while  the  shadows  of  the  forest  that 
fell  back  before  their  toil  betokened  the  martyr's  death 
he  was  to  suffer.  The  end  came  after  three  years 
spent  in  these  woodland  depths,  and  through  the  very 
men  with  whom  he  had  lived  and  in  whom  he  had 
trusted  with  a  simple  confidence.  Tired,  perhaps,  of 
a  life  of  self-renunciation,  the  half-pagan  monks  set 
upon  their  leader,  beheaded  him,  and,  fleeing  toward 
Alemannia,  were  captured  and  executed.  Thus,  at 
least,  runs  the  story  of  the  Martyr  of  the  Black  Forest 
as  later  writers  have  told  it. 

Rather  more  clearly  defined  is  the  life  of  the  Irish 
missionary  Kilian,  whose  body  rests  in  the  Neumiin- 
ster  of  Wiirzberg.  While  studying  the  Scriptures  in 
an  Irish  monastery,  he  heard  his  Master's  call, 
"  Whoso  forsaketh  not  all  that  he  has,  cannot  be  my 
disciple,"  and  with  twelve  companions  set  out  for  the 
Continent  to  labour  among  the  pagan  tribes  of  Ger- 
many. He  began  his  labours  in  Franconia,  and  suc- 
ceeded in  winning  Duke  Gozbert,  who,  according  to 
one  account,  was  baptized  by  the  Irish  missionary. 
Not  long  afterward,  Kilian  fell  a  martyr  to  his  zeal 
for  the  laws  of  the  Church.  Duke  Gozbert  marrying 
his  brother's  wife  or  widow,  the  missionary  was  not 
slow  in  rebuking  his  prince  for  violation  of  ecclesias- 
tical law.  The  duke  promised  amendment  of  his  fault, 
but,  during  her  husband's  absence  on  the  battlefield, 
the  duchess  procured  the  assassination  of  Kilian  and 
his  companions. 


182  MARTYRS  FOR  THEIR  FAITH 

Somewhere  in  this  same  region  another  Irish  la- 
bourer, LandoHn,  met  death  at  the  hands  of  heathen 
whom  he  had  enraged  by  cutting  down  a  sacred  fir 
and  forming  a  cross  from  its  wood,  while  in  Brabant, 
in  653,  a  fellow-countryman,  Livin,  suffered  martyr- 
dom among  those  whom  he  was  seeking  to  win  to 
Christianity. 

The  historian  Bede  gives  us  the  story  of  the  two 
Hewalds.  They  were  Saxons  of  England,  brothers, 
who,  after  training  in  Ireland,  went  to  preach  to  their 
kinsmen,  the  Saxons  of  northern  Germany.  From 
their  hair  and  complexions,  these  men  were  known  as 
Black  Hewald  and  White  Hewald,  the  former  being 
better  versed  in  the  Scriptures.  Hardly  could  they 
have  selected  a  more  dangerous  and  difficult  field  for 
their  labours  than  the  home  of  the  men  who  gave  to 
England  some  of  her  bravest  citizens  and  who  later 
struggled  so  long  and  desperately  against  the  great 
Emperor  Charlemagne.  Among  all  the  Germans  they 
were  perhaps  the  most  warlike,  the  most  unwilling  to 
bow  to  a  foreign  power.  But  the  Hewalds  were  of 
the  same  sturdy  stock  as  the  people  among  whom  they 
were  to  labour,  and  so  a  little  later  we  find  them  in  a 
village  of  the  North  German  forest  waiting  for  the 
reeve,  whose  guests  they  were,  to  bring  them  before 
the  chieftain  of  the  tribe.  Day  by  day  the  people 
watched  them  singing  and  praying  to  their  God,  and 
ever  more  and  more  bitter  became  their  suspicious 
hatred  of  these  strangers  from  across  the  sea.  At 
length  the  anger  of  this  turbulent  folk  flamed  out  in  a 
wild  burst  of  passion.  "  On  a  sudden,"  writes  Bede, 
"  they  laid  hold  on  them  and  put  them  to  death,  and 
White  Hewald  they  slew  outright;  but  they  put  Black 
Hewald  to  lingering  torture  .    .    .  and  threw  their 


THE  HEWALDS,  WENCESLAUS         183 

bodies  into  the  Rhine."  As  in  the  case  of  Trudpert's 
murderers,  speedy  vengeance  was  visited  upon  the 
assassins,  whose  village  was  entirely  destroyed  by  the 
ealdorman  of  the  district. 

The  century  following  Moravia's  conversion  under 
the  preaching  of  Cyril  and  Methodius  was  a  transition 
period  for  its  northern  neighbour,  Bohemia.  Bor- 
ziwoi,  Duke  of  Bohemia,  it  would  seem  had  received 
baptism  at  the  Moravian  court  during  the  years  of 
Methodius'  mission,  but  did  not  succeed  in  winning 
his  subjects  to  the  faith  of  the  Christians.  In  927 
an  outbreak  occurred  between  the  pagan  and  Christian 
factions.  Ludmilla,  Borziwoi's  wife,  had  been  in- 
trusted with  the  education  of  her  two  grandsons,  Wen- 
ceslaus  and  Boleslav,  whom  she  endeavoured  to  rear 
in  the  Christian  faith.  In  Wenceslaus  she  found  a 
ready  and  appreciative  pupil,  but  Boleslav  and  his 
mother  opposed  Ludmilla  and  finally  secured  the  mur- 
der of  the  Christian  duchess.  When  Wenceslaus  be- 
came ruler  of  the  country,  he  sought  to  extend  the 
faith  by  gentle  means  among  his  subjects.  Churches 
and  monasteries  and  benevolent  institutions  were  built 
throughout  the  land,  but  the  good  duke  lacked  the  firm- 
ness necessary  to  control  the  pagan  opposition,  which 
was  led  by  the  duke's  brother.  Wearied  with  the  long 
struggle,  Wenceslaus  was  about  to  abdicate  and  go  on 
a  pilgrimage  to  Rome,  when  he  was  put  to  death  at  his 
brother's  instigation  outside  the  church  whither  he 
had  gone  to  worship  with  his  people. 

During  the  reign  of  Boleslav  paganism  was  again 
triumphant  in  Bohemia.  Under  his  successor,  Bole- 
slav the  Mild,  Prague  was  made  the  seat  of  a  new 
bishopric  and  Christianity  nominally  accepted.  Su- 
perstition and   immorality,   however,   still  continued, 


184  MARTYRS  FOR  THEIR  FAITH 

often  under  the  name  of  Christianity,  and  when  the 
Czech  Adalbert  ^  became  Archbishop  of  Prague  in  983, 
he  found  a  corrupt  church  and  a  dissolute  clergy. 
Impetuous  of  disposition  and  aspiring  to  a  martyr's 
death,  Adalbert  probably  accomplished  less  in  winning 
people  and  priesthood  to  a  higher  life  than  if  he  had 
employed  more  sane  and  conservative  methods.  Yet 
his  years  of  labour,  interrupted  by  occasional  journeys 
to  Rome  when  he  became  discouraged  in  the  home 
field,  stand  as  a  courageous  protest  against  a  religion 
of  mere  outward  form.  In  later  life  he  received  a 
commission  from  Rome  to  preach  among  the  pagans 
of  Poland,  where  in  997  he  was  thrust  through  the 
heart  by  a  heathen  priest. 

Wenceslaus  was  not  the  only  sovereign  to  suffer 
death  at  the  hands  of  his  pagan  subjects.  Ax  more  dra- 
matic tale  has  not  come  down  to  us  from  mediaeval 
times  than  the  story  of  the  Slav,  Gottschalk,  who  built 
up  a  Wendish  kingdom  in  the  eleventh  century  between 
the  Elbe  and  Oder.  This  prince  was  sent  at  an  early 
age  to  a  monastery  on  the  Kalkberg  above  Liineburg. 
Here  he  was  educated  in  the  Christian  faith,  but  on 
hearing  of  his  father's  murder  at  the  hands  of  Chris- 
tian Germans,  left  the  monastery  and,  gathering  a 
strong  force  of  his  countrymen,  the  Wends,  who  were 
fanatical  pagans,  laid  waste  the  whole  country  about 
Hamburg,  burning  and  slaying  even  as  far  north  as 
Denmark.  But  the  teachings  of  his  childhood  were 
yet  to  bear  fruit,  and  from  one  of  these  cruel  expedi- 
tions he  returned  repentant  and  mourning  the  destruc- 
tion of  peaceful  villages  and  happy  homes  for  which  he 
had  been  responsible,  and  vowing  to  devote  his  life 
henceforth  to  the  religion  he  had  scorned  in  the  days  of 
^  His  Bohemian  name  was  Woitech. 


GOTTSCHALK  185 

his  bitter  vengeance.  In  time  Gottschalk  succeeded  in 
forming  his  people  into  a  strong  confederacy,  with  the 
growth  of  temporal  power,  taking  care,  also,  to  build 
up  the  feeble  Wendish  church.  In  spite  of  opposition, 
he  brought  many  teachers  and  preachers  into  his  realm. 
Like  Oswald  of  Northumbria,  he  himself  interpreted 
the  Latin  ritual  for  his  people  and  at  the  church  serv- 
ices explained  the  principles  of  Christian  living,  since 
many  of  the  clergy  who  came  to  him  were  ignorant 
of  the  Slavic  tongue. 

As  might  be  expected,  the  influence  of  so  strong  a 
monarch  won  thousands  of  converts  to  the  religion 
which  successive  Prankish  rulers  had  tried  in  vain  to 
force  upon  them.  But  the  stronger  the  hold  that 
Christianity  gained  upon  the  people,  the  more  bitter 
grew  the  opposition  of  the  leaders  of  the  old  paganism. 
In  1066,  nineteen  years  after  he  had  made  himself 
emperor  of  his  people,  Gottschalk  was  surprised  by 
pagan  murderers  at  Lenzen  and  died  a  martyr  to  the 
faith  for  which  he  had  laboured.  With  him  perished 
over  sixty  priests  and  bishops,  some  stoned  to  death, 
others  offered  as  sacrifice  upon  heathen  altars.  One 
monk  begged  to  see  his  companions  stoned  first  lest 
they  falter  and  deny  the  faith.  The  aged  bishop,  John 
of  Mecklenburg,  suffered  days  of  torture  without  a 
murmur,  and  was  finally  beheaded  and  offered  in  sacri- 
fice to  Radegast.  A  general  persecution  of  the  Wend- 
ish church  followed,  and  not  until  1168  was  the  last 
idol  destroyed  in  the  kingdom  over  which  Gottschalk 
had  ruled. 


PART   II 
DARKNESS  AND   DAYBREAK 


"Christ  commanded  us.  saying,  '  This  I  command  you,  that  ye 
love  one  another' — Therefore  these  words  ought  the  more  to  be 
regarded,  seeing  He  Himself  spake  them  at  His  last  departing 
from  us.  May  God  of  His  mercy  give  us  His  grace  so  to  walk  here 
in  this  world,  charitably  and  friendly  one  with  another,  that  we 
may  attain  the  joy  which  God  hath  prepared  for  all  those  that 
love  Him.     Amen." 

— Hugh  Latimer. 

"  He  that  turneth  from  the  road  to  rescue  another 
Turneth  toward  his  goal  : 

He  shall  arrive  in  due  time  by  the  footpath  of  mercy, 
God  will  be  his  guide. 

"  He  that  careth  for  the  sick  and  wounded 
Watcheth  not  alone  : 
There  are  three  in  the  darkness  together. 
And  the  third  is  the  Lord. 

"  Blessed  is  the  way  of  the  helpers  : 
The  companions  of  the  Christ," 

— Henry  Van  Dyke. 


BACKGROUNDS 

LIKE  a  mountain  stream,  animate  with  the  force 
of  the  hills,  overleaping  with  joyous  bounds  the 
•^  impeding  boulder,  unstayed  by  apparent  defeat, 
rushing  on  its  way  with  the  impetuosity  of  youth,  jubi- 
lant as  the  morning,  triumphant  as  an  army  with 
banners,  that  glorious  company  of  early  apostles  had 
carried  Europe  on  the  strong  tide  of  their  enthusiasm 
into  the  Christian  faith  and  destroyed  for  all  time  the 
power  of  pagan  priest.  It  is  like  breathing  the  keen 
air  of  the  uplands  or  facing  the  salt  winds  and  the 
driven  spray  on  the  boundless  sea  to  read  that  thrilling 
story  of  buoyant  hope  and  all-subduing  and  holy  am- 
bition. The  glory  of  the  morning  and  of  youth  is  in 
it,  that  celestial  glory  which  only  the  Spirit  of  God 
can  renew  in  our  lives,  and  into  the  full  possession  of 
which  we  shall  come  in  that  homeland  whose  builder 
and  maker  is  God. 

Yet  it  was  perhaps  inevitable  that  such  a  period  of 
rapturous  zeal  should  be  followed  by  a  time  of  reac- 
tion, such  as  seems  forever  to  intervene  between  a  first 
love  and  faith  and  the  steadier  and  more  enduring 
advance  of  maturity.  And  it  was  in  truth  a  troubled 
world  in  which  the  Church  found  itself  in  those  cen- 
turies following  the  breaking  up  of  old  governments 
and  old  institutions  and  the  beginning  of  new  things. 
No  wonder  that  the  fair  purity  of  the  earlier  faith 

189 


190  BACKGROUNDS 

lost  much  of  its  freedom  and  of  its  spiritual  power 
as  the  years  went  on.  Yet  with  all  these  defects,  one 
hesitates  to  think  what  Europe  would  have  been  with- 
out the  Church,  even  when  her  light  burned  lowest. 
From  her  conflict  with  pagan  philosophies  and  heathen 
practices,  with  war  and  murder  and  carnage,  with  ig- 
norance and  superstition,  above  all  with  the  subtler 
foes  of  prosperity  and  lands  and  magnificence  and  de- 
sire for  authority,  she  emerged  a  sovereign  power, 
throned  in  the  Imperial  City  of  the  Caesars,  holding 
threads  of  influence  felt  to  the  uttermost  bounds  of 
western  Europe,  but  without  her  original  gift  of  life 
more  abundant  in  which  the  Christ  is  seen  of  men.  A 
moral  force  she  always,  in  varying  degrees,  remained ; 
a  spiritual  force,  in  any  high  and  universal  degree,  she 
was  not.  Such  a  church  could  not  be  a  missionary 
church. 

Gradually  the  Bishop  of  Rome,  through  prestige  of 
the  city's  great  past,  became  a  counselling  and  then  a 
governing  head  of  the  Church  of  Western  Europe. 
In  the  ninth  century  the  supposed  discovery  of  the 
Isidorian  Decretals  placed  the  final  stone  upon  the 
foundation  upholding  papal  authority,  which  had  been 
begun  in  the  preceding  century  by  the  "  Donation  of 
Pepin."  ^  In  the  eleventh  century  Hildebrand  set  him- 
self to  raise  the  power  of  the  Papacy  above  that  of 
the  sovereigns  of  Europe  in  order  to  strengthen  the 
moral  influence  of  the  Church.  And  in  this  he  suc- 
ceeded, though  for  his  victory  he  died  in  exile.  Inno- 
cent the  Third  and  Gregory  the  Ninth  completed  the 
work  he  began.     Yet  the  reforms  which  called  into 

1  The  gift  to  the  Pope  of  Ravenna,  the  Pentapolis,  the  Emilia, 
and  the  duchy  of  Rome,  these  forming  the  beginning  of  the  Pa- 
pal  States. 


BACKGROUNDS  191 

being  the  monastic  orders,  and  for  which  Hildebrand 
had  striven,  proved  not  to  be  permanent  in  character. 
When  Francis  began  preaching  and  Hving  the  simple 
gospel  of  the  Christ  in  Italy,  the  clergy  were  corrupt 
and  simony  was  still  common.  There  was  no  preach- 
ing by  the  priesthood,  public  worship  had  become  "  a 
sort  of  self-acting  magic  formula,"  miracles  held  a 
prominent  place,  and  the  worship  of  relics  seemed 
hardly  more  than  a  pagan  rite.  Between  the  soul  and 
God  there  stood  a  mass  of  barriers  which  darkened 
the  vision  of  even  the  most  saintly.  In  the  erection  of 
this  wall  of  personal  mediation  and  in  other  of  her  in- 
stitutions the  Church  brought  into  being  elements 
which  have  hindered  her  purity  and  usefulness  and  will 
continue  to  do  so  as  long  as  they  remain  a  part  of  her 
creed. 

Not  only  did  the  ambition  to  extend  the  temporal 
power  of  the  Church  leave  little  room  for  developing 
missionary  operations  in  other  lands,  but  the  hostile 
attitude  of  Mohammedan  and  Mongol,  the  need  Eu- 
rope had  of  fighting  for  her  very  existence  and  inde- 
pendence before  the  inroads  of  Tartar  hordes  for 
many  centuries  prevented  the  rise  of  any  widespread 
missionary  spirit  in  the  Church.  The  Crusades  were 
a  better  expression  of  the  attitude  of  the  Church 
toward  infidel  and  pagan  than  the  missionary  aspira- 
tions of  Francis  of  Assisi  and  Raimundus  Lullus. 
With  the  conversion  of  the  Slavs,  the  missionary  en- 
terprise of  Europe  fell  into  a  long  sleep,  from  which 
it  was  in  part  awakened  by  Jesuit  zeal  in  the  sixteenth 
century.  During  those  many  years  few  cared  to  look 
in  love  beyond  their  own  boundaries.  An  age  that 
could  devise  the  Inquisition  would  not  look  in  mercy 
and  pity  upon  the  unbeliever. 


192  BACKGROUNDS 

On  the  eve  of  All  Saints,  15 17,  a  professor  of  phi- 
losophy at  Wittenberg  nailed  to  the  door  of  the 
Schlosskirche  ninety-five  theses  called  forth  by  the 
monk  Tetzel's  shameless  sale  of  indulgences.  You 
know  the  outcome  of  that  bold  act :  how,  before  the 
century  closed,  Germany  and  England,  Sweden  and 
Denmark,  and  Norway  and  the  Netherlands  had  left 
the  Church  and  ceased  to  look  to  Rome  for  salvation. 
Sadly  depleted  were  the  Church's  ranks  and  battle- 
scarred  and  broken  the  citadel  of  the  Holy  Hierarchy. 
How  should  the  lost  power  be  regained?  The  answer 
came  in  a  new  organization  founded  by  a  Spanish 
Catholic,  Ignatius  of  Loyola.  Through  the  mis- 
sionary members  of  their  Order,  the  Jesuits  sought  to 
win  in  other  lands  what  had  been  lost  at  home. 

In  the  study  of  these  Jesuit  missions  we  must  dis- 
tinguish sharply  between  the  organization  and  the  in- 
dividual and  between  the  earlier  and  later  apostles. 
"  The  mediaeval  Jesuit,"  says  one  writer,  "  might  be 
and  often  was  a  hero,  saint,  and  martyr,  but  the  sys- 
tem which  he  was  obliged  to  administer  was  doomed 
to  failure."  Though  taking  upon  itself  the  name  of 
the  holy  Founder  of  our  faith,  the  Society  has  not 
in  the  judgment  of  the  world,  manifested  His  spirit. 
Surely  Christ  believed  and  believes  in  men  and  in  their 
possibilities  for  individual  development  and  achieve- 
ment. Did  He  not  make  of  a  taxgatherer  and  fisher- 
men apostles,  the  light  of  whose  lives  has  shone  clear 
and  steady  down  the  centuries  ?  Yet  in  the  rules  for 
the  Order  we  read  the  expression  of  principles  which 
have  worn  heavily  upon  many  a  sincere  soul  and 
turned  the  zeal  of  others  into  channels  where  weary 
labour  and  true  heroism  have  been  borne  onward  to 
failure. 


BACKGROUNDS  193 

Obedience  to  the  Pope  and  obedience  of  the  indi- 
vidual Jesuit  to  his  superior  and  of  all  members  to  the 
General  of  the  Order,  is  demanded.  We  quote  from  a 
letter  of  Loyola's  to  the  Portuguese  Jesuits,  which  is 
still  read  once  a  month  at  meal-time  in  the  Profess- 
houses  :^ 

"  Whoever,  therefore,  will  attain  to  the  virtue  of 
obedience  must  .  .  .  not  only  execute  the  commands 
of  his  superior,  but  also  make  the  will  of  the  superior 
his  own,  or  rather  dispossess  himself  of  his  own  will 
and  lean  upon  that  of  his  superior  as  divinely  given 
to  him.  Furthermore,  whoever  will  wholly  give  him- 
self to  God,  must  (and  this  is  the  third  step  in  obe- 
dience) immolate  both  the  will  and  the  understanding, 
so  that  he  shall  not  only  will  but  also  think  as  his 
superior  and  surrender  his  judgment  to  that  of  his 
superior's,  in  so  far  as  a  devout  soul  can  bend  the 
reason." 

And  again,  from  the  lips  of  a  French  Jesuit: 
"  Would  any  one  know  what  obedience  is  with  refer- 
ence to  the  extent  of  the  sacrifice  ?  A  voluntary  death, 
the  grave  of  the  will." 

The  crushing  of  all  individualism,  an  obedience  that 
leaves  no  power  of  moral  choice,  the  theory  that  the 
end  justifies  the  means,  "  for  the  greater  glory  of 
God,"  and  the  system  of  espionage — one  of  the  most 
despicable  of  evils,  and  forever  failing  in  its  purpose 
and  revealing  only  the  stupidity  of  the  watcher — are 
foundation  principles  that  have  been  most   severely 

^  "  14  Jahre  Jesuit,"  Graf  von  Honsbroch,  Leipzig,  1910.  Auto- 
biographical notes  and  criticism  of  the  Society  of  Jesus  by 
a  German  count,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Order  for  four- 
teen years,  from  1878  to  1892,  in  the  latter  year  leaving  both  the 
Order  and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church. 


194.  BACKGROUNDS 

censured  in  the  long  course  of  the  years  and  are  to-day 
more  than  ever  out  of  harmony  with  the  world's 
thought.  What  is  admirable  here  as  everywhere  is 
that  spirit  of  real  heroism  which  led  to  the  giving  up 
even  of  life  itself  for  what  was  deemed  a  worthy 
cause.  And  it  is  this  phase  of  early  Jesuitism, — its 
noblest  phase, — that  discovers  for  it  a  place  in  our 
annals  of  missionary  heroism. 

Very  surprising  at  first  seems  the  indifference  to 
missionary  interests  of  men  newly  liberated  from  the 
thraldom  of  centuries.  For  nearly  two  hundred  years 
after  the  Reformation  the  Protestant  Church  remained 
on  the  whole  content  with  caring  for  its  own  develop- 
ment, and  even  explicitly  taught  that  Christ's  com- 
mand to  go  into  all  the  world  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature  was  laid  upon  the  apostles  only  and  had 
already  been  fulfilled.  The  end  of  all  things  comes 
shortly,  perhaps  in  their  own  century;  for  a  long 
period  they  are  not  brought  into  contact  with  the 
heathen  world  and  the  prejudices  of  centuries  are  not 
easily  removed.  Furthermore,  is  there  not  sufficient 
with  which  to  occupy  their  hands  in  the  conversion  of 
the  paganized  Christian  Church  at  home? 

The  exceptions  to  this  apathy  are  few  and  widely 
separated.  In  1555  two  pastors  were  sent  out  from 
Geneva  to  the  unfortunate  colony  in  Brazil  of  which 
Villegaignon  was  founder;  but  after  a  little  service 
gave  up  the  missionary  labours  in  despair  and  were 
themselves  shortly  expelled  from  the  colony  by  the 
treachery  of  Villegaignon.  About  the  same  time  Gus- 
tavus  Vasa  sent  labourers  into  Finland  to  recall  the 
half-pagan  Lapps  to  Christianity.  In  the  colony  of 
New  Sweden  on  the  Delaware,  Campanius  in  the  mid- 
dle of  the  next  century  sought  to  win  his  Indian  neigh- 


BACKGROUNDS  195 

hours  to  an  acceptance  of  the  Christian  faith.  The 
Scotch  Confession  of  1560  closes  with  a  prayer  which 
to-day,  on  many  a  mission  field,  the  spiritual  descend- 
ants of  Knox  are  most  sturdily  labouring  to  fulfil. 
"  Give  Thy  servants  strength  to  speak  Thy  words  in 
boldness;  and  let  all  nations  attain  to  Thy  true 
knowledge." 

The  Reformed  Church,  as  we  have  said,  taught  that 
the  missionary  command  had  been  already  fulfilled. 
A  solitary  voice  in  the  sixteenth  century  was  raised  in 
denial  of  this  strange  assertion.  Adrianus  Saravia,  a 
Dutch  exile  in  England,  published  in  1590  a  little  pam- 
phlet in  which  he  proves  that  the  work  of  preaching 
to  all  nations  was  far  too  great  for  the  apostles  to 
accomplish  and  that  the  missionary  history  of  the  past 
is  a  call  to  the  Church  to  face  anew  its  obligations  to 
the  non-Christian  world.  In  the  next  century,  the 
Age  of  Orthodoxy,  "  Protestantism,  as  a  doctrine,  be- 
came scholastic;  as  a  life,  it  became  political,  and  the 
consciousness  of  the  Holy  Spirit  as  a  living,  personal 
helper,  became  dimmed.  By  1700  the  vital  element  of 
the  Reformation  had  apparently  lost  its  power."  ^ 

Yet  even  in  this  era  of  darkness  we  find  a  little 
group  of  men  to  whom  the  missionary  concept  was  in 
varying  degrees  becoming  apparent.  A  German,  one 
Peter  Heiling,  set  out  for  Egypt  in  1632,  spending 
some  time  in  Malta  for  the  study  of  Arabic,  and  later 
preaching  to  the  Copts.  Like  Frumentius,"  who  had 
laboured  so  many  centuries  earlier  in  Abyssinia, 
Heiling  gave  the  New  Testament  to  the  people  in  their 
own  tongue,  but  unlike  the  former  finally  died  a  mar- 
tyr's death.     Justinian  von  Weltz,  an  Austrian  baron 

1  F.  B.  Denio,  "  The  Supreme  Leader." 

2  Apostle  of  Abyssinia,  lived  in  fourth  century. 


196  BACKGROUNDS 

whose  father  had  been  exiled  from  his  native  land  by 
the  Bohemian  persecution  of  1622,  devoted  his  time 
and  money  to  the  task  of  awakening  the  Church  to  a 
sense  of  its  duty  toward  the  non-Christian  world.  He 
pleaded  for  a  "  Christian  Society  of  Jesus  having  for 
its  object  the  Betterment  of  Christendom  and  the  Con- 
version of  Heathendom,"  to  be  conducted,  one  would 
judge,  on  very  much  the  same  general  plan  as  our  mis- 
sionary societies  of  to-day.  Von  Weltz  was  not  al- 
lowed to  publish  his  writings  in  Germany,  and  suf- 
fered withering  scorn  from  certain  Orthodox  leaders, 
among  whom  was  Johann  Heinrich  Ursinus.  This 
Ursinus  speaks  freely  of  the  heathen  as  "  blasphemous 
persecutors,"  "  dogs  and  swine,"  and  "  positive  sav- 
ages, who  have  nothing  human  about  them."  "  Where 
there  are  Christians,"  thus  Dr.  Warneck  summarizes 
some  of  these  strange  arguments,  "  missions  are  su- 
perfluous, and  where  there  are  no  Christians  they  are 
hopeless,  as,  e.  g.,  in  Japan,  China,  and  Africa.  When 
in  face  of  great  dangers,  Justinian  makes  his  appeal 
to  trust  in  God,  that  is  to  tempt  God.  The  God-given 
call  is  :  Remain  at  home.  '  But  if  the  matter  is  of  God, 
God  will  Himself  further  His  cause  and  show  ways 
and  means  so  that  the  heathen  shall  fly  as  doves  to  the 
windows.'  " 

But  the  voices  would  not  be  stilled.  The  matter 
was  of  God,  and  He  works  surely  if  He  sometimes 
works  slowly.  From  yet  another  and  a  more  unex- 
pected quarter  the  Church  was  forced  to  hear  the  call 
to  wider  helpfulness.  Baron  von  Leibnitz,  one  of  the 
great  original  thinkers  of  his  age,  had  been  brought 
into  contact  with  Jesuit  missionaries  from  the  far  East 
and  now  urged  a  like  work  in  the  Lutheran  Church. 
But,  though  the  newly  founded  Berlin  Academy  of 


BACKGROUNDS  197 

Sciences  promised  to  charge  itself  "  with  the  propa- 
gation of  the  true  faith  and  Christian  virtue,"  still 
nothing  very  definite  came  of  Von  Leibnitz's  zealous 
advocacy  of  an  unpopular  cause. 

As  Catholic,  and  especially  Jesuit  missions  had  fol- 
lowed in  the  wake  of  Latin  exploration  and  conquest, 
which  were,  nominally,  at  least,  undertaken  for  the 
extension  of  Christianity,  so  the  first  expansion  of 
Protestantism  beyond  European  boundaries  was  at- 
tendant upon  colonization  and  commercial  ventures. 
While  the  church  in  Germany  was  still  closing  its  heart 
to  the  needs  of  the  great  pagan  world,  far  across  the 
Atlantic  in  the  land  of  the  sunset,  John  Eliot  and  the 
Mayhews  and  other  pastors  ^  of  like  faithfulness  were 
threading  forest  ways  to  carry  to  their  dusky  neigh- 
bours the  message  that  in  more  than  one  village 
changed  the  indolent  warrior  into  the  peaceful  and 
industrious  citizen.  Of  a  truth  such  men  were  hearing 
and  heeding  the  Macedonian  cry.-  Those  days  saw 
also  the  organization  of  the  first  missionary  society  in 
England — a  precursor  of  the  many  organizations  to- 
day representing  the  far-reaching  activity  of  English 
Christians.  This  was  the  Corporation  for  the  Propa- 
gation of  the  Gospel  in  New  England,  formed  in  1649. 

Dutch  missions  had  their  origin  in  the  new  trade 
with  the  Indies  which,  with  indomitable  spirit,  they 
were  developing  before  the  Spanish  were  well  out  of 
the  Netherlands.  Unhappily,  many  of  the  mistakes 
of  the  Catholic  labourers  were  repeated  by  the  clergy- 
men sent  out  to  the  ports  of  the  Dutch  East  India 
Company,  and  hope  of  official  favour  and  of  personal 

1  Eliot's  labours  do  not  come  within  the  scope  of  this  work. 

2  The  first  seal  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  represented 
an  Indian  uttering  the  call,  "Come  over  and  help  us." 


198  BACKGROUNDS 

gain  attracted  those  among  the  natives  who  did  not 
witness  to  their  faith  with  changed  lives,  so  that  nu- 
merical success  as  indicated  in  the  numbers  of  baptisms 
recorded  was  often  far  more  than  actual  achievement. 
Nevertheless,  for  three  hundred  years  the  work  has 
gone  on  with  periods  of  rise  and  fall,  ebb  and  flood, 
and  with  the  self-denying  servants  even  in  days  of 
gloom.  In  Java,  "  Holland's  treasure-house,"  in  For- 
mosa, and  in  Ceylon  and  the  Moluccas,  the  years  wit- 
nessed a  rapid  spread  of  nominal  Christianity.  Yet 
when  the  new  age  of  missions  dawned  upon  the  East 
years  later,  only  islands  of  hope  rose  above  a  weltering 
sea  of  heathenism  and  Mohammedanism. 

Let  us  return  to  Germany  and  the  forerunners  of 
modern  missions.  In  the  ancient  Saxon  city  of  Halle 
on  the  Saale  the  year  1691  saw  the  founding  of  a  uni- 
versity which  was  to  exert  a  profound  influence  upon 
the  current  of  the  Church's  life  abroad.  With  the 
city  and  the  movement  which  it  fostered  are  insep- 
arably bound  up  the  names  of  two  men,  founders  of 
Pietism  and  prophets  of  a  new  day  in  missions,  Jacob 
Spener  and  August  Hermann  Francke. 

Spener,  an  Alsatian  by  birth,  after  study  in  Strass- 
burg  and  Geneva,  was  called  to  a  pastorate  at  Frank- 
fort-on-the-Main.  Here,  in  meetings  for  Bible  study 
at  the  pastor's  home,  originated  the  great  movement 
of  Pietism,  which  in  the  years  following  spread  with 
marvellous  rapidity  throughout  Germany.  In  its  in- 
ception the  movement  stood  for  the  witness  of  the 
Spirit  with  our  spirits  that  we  are  the  children  of  God, 
for  a  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  and  for  a  renewal 
of  Christian  responsibility  on  the  part  of  the  laity, — ■ 
a  striking  feature,  since  the  Lutheran  clergy  had  made 
of  their  order  a  hierarchy  pure  and  simple.     For  the 


BACKGROUNDS  199 

later  development  of  the  movement  its  founders  were 
not  responsible. 

Meanwhile  Francke  had  organized  classes  for  Bible 
study  at  Leipzig  and  at  Erfurt,  his  eloquent  sermons 
in  the  latter  place  leading  to  criticism  and  banishment. 
Together  at  Halle  the  two  men  gave  form  and  colour 
to  their  more  practical  theology,  which  now  entered 
the  lists  against  the  scholasticism  of  Wittenberg  and 
Leipzig.  The  men  who  went  out  to  India  under  com- 
mission from  the  Danish  government  had  been  trained 
in  Francke's  classes  and  in  his  spirit,  and  later,  In  the 
midst  of  their  toil,  found  inspiration  in  his  written 
messages.  At  home  he  succeeded  in  gathering  a  body 
of  support  for  the  work,  within  the  Church,  convinc- 
ing some  at  least  that  the  evangelization  of  the  non- 
Christian  world  was  quite  as  much  the  business  of  the 
Church  as  of  the  colonial  governments. 

The  eighteenth  century,  also,  saw  the  beginning  of 
Moravian  missions.  Bohemia,  the  land  of  Hus, 
proved  good  ground  for  evangelical  sowing  and 
brought  forth  a  great  harvest  of  believers  who  desired 
a  reformed  church.  Not  that  these  at  first  caught  the 
full  vision.  The  death  of  Hus,  to  be  sure,  sent  a  wave 
of  indignation  throughout  the  land,  and  brought  the 
Slavs  together  into  a  solid  body  of  opposition  to  the 
oppressing  German  prelates.  But  of  these  the  greater 
part  were  Utraquists,^  men  whose  chief  contention  was 
for  reform  within  the  Church,  and  who  gained  their 
name  from  their  demand  for  the  administering  of  the 
Communion  in  both  kinds,  the  chalice  having  been 
withheld  from  the  laity  for  many  years.  Over  against 
the  Utraquists  were  the  Taborites,  forerunners  of 
modern  Protestantism.  For  a  time  the  contest  be- 
»  Calixtines. 


200  BACKGROUNDS 

tween  the  Empire  and  the  Slavs  was  sharp  and  bit- 
ter, the  Emperor  more  than  once  gathering  forces 
for  a  crusade  against  rebelhous  Bohemia.  In  1434 
the  Taborite  minority,  who  had  never  been  in  good 
fellowship  with  the  more  corrupt  Utraquist  Church, 
was  defeated,  with  the  result  that  a  partial  reconcilia- 
tion was  effected  between  the  more  moderate  reformers 
and  the  Emperor.  Meanwhile  there  were  still  Sepa- 
ratists, who  claimed  freedom  of  worship,  often  through 
severe  persecution.  We  catch  glimpses  of  them  fol- 
lowing deserted  ways  drifted  deep  with  snows  to 
gather  about  a  campfire  in  some  lonely  mountain  defile 
for  the  worship  denied  them  at  home.  The  little  vil- 
lage of  Kunwald,  under  Peter  of  Chelcic  and  Gregory 
the  patriarch,  became  the  headquarters  of  the  new 
way.  To  the  original  believers  were  added  Walden- 
sians  and  even  Utraquists,  and  here  arose  the  name 
of  the  Bohemian  Brethren.  The  Reformation  sent  the 
freer  faith  everywhere  in  Bohemia  and  Moravia,^  only 
to  be  met  a  few  years  later  by  insidious  opposition  and 
persecution  by  the  leaders  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
Counter-Reformation,  the  Jesuits. 

After  the  battle  of  the  White  Mountain  in  1620,  no 
fewer  than  thirty  thousand  families  fled  from  Bo- 
hemia, leaving  a  remnant,  the  Hidden  Seed,  which 
still  worshipped  in  secret  in  Moravia.  In  1722  Chris- 
tian David  led  a  small  company  of  these  into  Saxony. 
Soon,  on  Count  Zinzendorf's  estate,  was  rising  the  lit- 
tle village  of  Herrnhut,  and  before  ten  years  had 
passed  the  brethren  so  lately  fleeing  from  persecution 
were  sending  out  labourers  to  the  two  Americas,  in- 

1  May  it  not  be  that  the  warm  reception  of  the  new  truths  in 
Moravia  was  due  to  the  effect  upon  Moravian  Christianity  of  the 
Slavic  Bible  of  Cyril  and  Methodius? 


BACKGROUNDS  201 

augurating  the  first  successful  campaign  for  missions 
purely  foreign  since  that  glorious  morning-time  of  mis- 
sionary activity.  For  the  Moravians  embraced  their 
service  wholly  as  a  labour  of  love,  uncalled  by  the  re- 
sponsibilities w^hich  the  conquest  of  non-Christian 
lands  forced  upon  English,  Dutch,  Danish,  and  Latin 
peoples.  In  no  way  were  they  dependent  upon  home 
or  colonial  governments.  At  the  Edinburgh  Confer- 
ence the  late  M.  Boegner  said,  "  The  French  Protestant 
Church  at  home  has  been  saved  by  its  missions 
abroad."  ^  And  who  can  say  that  the  vigour  of  the 
little  Moravian  Church — a  church  giving  five  times  as 
many  labourers  to  the  mission  field  as  she  keeps  pas- 
tors at  home — is  not  largely  due  to  her  willing  obe- 
dience to  the  last  command  of  her  Lord. 

Still  the  Protestant  Church  as  a  whole  through- 
out Europe  slept  on.  Neither  to  its  heights  of  privi- 
lege at  home,  nor  to  a  realization  that  the  Christian  is 
his  brother's  keeper  and  the  ambassador  of  his  Lord, 
was  the  Church  of  Germany  or  Scandinavia  or  Eng- 
land yet  willing  to  open  its  thought.  Only  with  the 
last  years  of  the  eighteenth  century  did  any  consid- 
erable change  manifest  itself.  In  England  the  way 
was  prepared  by  Whitefield  and  the  Wesleys,  and  by 
the  explorations  of  Cook  in  the  South  Seas.  With 
quickened  spiritual  vision  came  the  organized  advance 
of  the  Christian  hosts  of  Europe  and  America 
to  a  final  conflict  with  paganism.  In  1792,  through 
the  influence  of  William  Carey,  the  Father  of 
Modern  Missions,  was  organized  the  Baptist  Mis- 
sionary Society,  concerning  which  we  shall  speak  more 
fully  in  our  last  chapter.  Three  years  later  the  Lon- 
don Missionary  Society  came  into  being,  and  in  1799 

1  See  Appendix  I,  note  4. 


£02  BACKGROUNDS 

the  Church  Missionary  Society  was  formed,  counting 
among  its  charter  members  such  men  as  John  Newton, 
the  hymn- writer;  Charles  Grant,  director  of  the  East 
India  Company;  Zachary  Macaulay,  father  of  Lord 
Macaulay,  and  William  Wilber force,  philanthropist. 

The  founding  of  the  London  Missionary  Society, 
September  22-24,  1795?  was  attended  by  many  interest- 
ing circumstances.  On  the  evening  of  the  last  day  of 
the  conference,  a  great  audience  came  together  in  the 
Tottenham  Court  Road  Tabernacle.  Mr.  Home  de- 
scribes the  service  thus : 

"  By  common  consent,  the  striking  sermon  then 
preached  by  Dr.  Bogue  touched  the  high-water  mark 
of  missionary  apologetics.  ...  It  was  in  the  course  of 
this  sermon  that  Dr.  Bogue  described  the  congregation 
as  attending  '  the  funeral  of  bigotry.'  '  May  she  be 
buried  so  deep,'  he  added  fervently,  '  that  not  a  particle 
of  her  dust  may  ever  be  thrown  up  on  the  face  of  the 
earth.'  The  congregation  shared  to  the  full  the 
preacher's  catholic  sentiments.  There  was  '  a  visible 
union  of  ministers  and  Christians  of  all  denomina- 
tions, who,  for  the  first  time,  forgetting  their  party 
prejudices  and  partialities,  assembled  in  the  same 
place,  sang  the  same  hymns,  united  in  the  same  prayers, 
and  felt  themselves  one  in  Christ.'  There  can  be  lit- 
tle doubt  that  the  unanimous  opinion  of  those  who 
took  part  in  these  phenomenal  gatherings  was  voiced 
by  Dr.  Bogue,  when  he  said,  '  We  shall  account  it, 
through  eternity,  a  distinguished  favour,  and  the 
highest  honour  conferred  on  us  during  our  pilgrimage 
on  earth,  that  we  appeared  here  and  gave  our  names 
among  the  Founders  of  the  Missionary  Society.' " 

In  March,  1797,  the  ship  Duff,  bearing  the  first  mis- 
sionaries sent  out  by  the  L.   M.   S.,  arrived  at  the 


BACKGROUNDS  203 

Society  Archipelago.  Seventeen  of  the  thirty  mis- 
sionaries were  left  on  Tahiti/  the  largest  island  of  the 
group.  At  first  the  outlook  seemed  bright.  The  king 
gave  the  missionaries  his  protection  and  allowed  them 
to  occupy  a  large  house  of  bamboo,  which  had  been 
erected  a  few  years  earlier  for  a  visiting  sea  captain. 
By  degrees,  however,  the  missionaries  came  to  realize 
the  utter  degradation  of  the  natives,  to  whom  nothing 
was  sin  but  the  omission  of  human  sacrifice.  Then 
a  foreign  ship  dropped  anchor  in  the  harbor  with 
the  purpose  of  barter  for  food  products,  and,  although 
the  captain  promised  to  waive  his  custom  and  allow 
the  natives  no  firearms  in  exchange  for  his  goods, 
several  of  the  sailors  deserted,  came  ashore,  and  stirred 
up  the  natives  to  such  an  extent  that  all  but  seven  of 
the  missionaries,  fearing  for  their  lives,  sailed  away 
with  the  ship. 

At  Tonga,  twelve  miles  west  of  Tahiti,  a  story  of 
terrible  sufifering  and  heroism  was  being  enacted. 
From  the  first  the  islanders  made  life  almost  unen- 
durable for  the  missionaries  by  petty  persecutions. 
Then  came  warfare  between  hostile  tribes.  Five  of 
the  missionaries  escaped  to  a  cave  by  the  seashore, 
where  they  waited  for  days  for  a  passing  ship.  The 
three  remaining  labourers  were  slain  by  natives  at  the 
door  of  the  mission-house.  A  single  missionary,  sta- 
tioned on  Santa  Christina,  was  finally  obliged  to  aban- 
don the  field,  so  that  in  the  year  1800  there  were  left 
in  the  South  Seas  only  seven  of  the  Society's  repre- 
sentatives— five  men  and  two  women — who  laboured 
faithfully  on  in  the  island  of  Tahiti. 

iln  1863  the  mission  on  Tahiti  was  given  over  to  the  Paris 
Missionary  Society,  which  maintains  four  stations  and  twelve 
out-stations  with  about  four  thousand  five  hundred  communicants. 


204  BACKGROUNDS 

Besides  the  missionaries  of  the  L.  M.  S.  at  work 
in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  the  year  1800  found  Van 
der  Kemp  labouring  in  South  Africa.  He,  too,  was 
a  foundation-builder,  and  all  that  story  of  bitter  sor- 
row and  renewed  faith  and  consecrated  labour — a  uni- 
versity man  among  one  of  the  lowest  of  nature  peoples 
— belongs  chiefly  to  the  later  period. 

In  Scotland,  in  1709,  a  Society  for  the  Propagation 
of  Christian  Knowledge  was  organized,  which  sup- 
ported David  Brainerd  in  his  labours  among  the  In- 
dians of  the  North  American  colonies.  Scotland's 
first  missionary  society,  however,  accomplished  little 
marked  work,  for  even  Brainerd's  labours  were  not 
of  continuing  value.  Yet  the  inspiration  of  this  heroic 
life  led  Jonathan  Edwards  to  devote  his  last  years  to 
the  Indians  of  Stockbridge,  and  it  was  through  reading 
Brainerd's  Journal  that  Henry  Martyn  went  to  the 
Mohammedans  of  Asia,  while  for  the  great  Founder 
of  Modern  Missions  this  wonderful  life  was  a  deter- 
mining and  stimulating  force. 

The  year  following  the  founding  of  the  L.  M.  S. 
two  societies  were  formed  in  Scotland,  the  Scottish 
and  the  Glasgow  Missionary  Societies,  and  these  for 
work  purely  foreign.  It  was  at  the  Church  Assembly 
of  this  year  (1796)  that  the  venerable  Dr.  Erskine 
stood  forth  before  the  opponents  of  the  work  with 
"  Rax  me  that  Bible,"  and,  when  the  book  was  brought, 
read  aloud  the  "  marching  orders  of  the  Church," 
while  fear  came  upon  all  that  were  assembled.  Truly, 
when  we  consider  these  humble  beginnings,  we  must 
acknowledge  that  the  nineteenth  century  has  been  one 
of  more  marvellous  achievement  than  any  other  since 
that  glorious  morning-time, — the  Age  of  Heroes. 


f 

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1  LiJ-'- 

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. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^           ^  »■—    -« 

ST.   FRANXIS  OF  ASSISI 


II 

"  THE  LITTLE  BROTHER  " 
St.  Francis  of  Assist 

"O  most  high,  almighty,  good  Lord  God,  to  Thee  belong 
praise,  glory,  honour,  and  all  blessing. 

"  Praised  be  my  Lord  for  all  those  who  pardon  one  another  for 
His  love's  sake,  and  who  endure  weakness  and  tribulation  ; 
blessed  are  they  who  peaceably  shall  endure,  for  Thou,  O  most 
Highest,  shalt  give  them  a  crown. 

"  Praise  ye  and  bless  the  Lord,  and  give  thanks  unto  Him 
•with  great  humility." 

—Sf.  Francis,  "  The  Canticle  of  the  Sun." 

SE\"EX  centuries  ago  in  Italy,  then  as  now  a  land 
of  beauty  almost  painful  in  its  wonder,  but  a 
land  where  the  Son  of  Peace  was  a  forgotten 
guest.  From  the  sun-kissed  hills  and  valleys  of  Cala- 
bria and  Apulia  to  feudal  Florence  and  Milan  and 
that  City  of  the  Lagoons  built  by  fairy  queens  "  to 
the  music  of  their  harps."  prince  warred  against  prince, 
city  against  city,  faction  against  faction.  Even  the 
Church  had  fallen  a  prey  to  the  allurements  of  influ- 
ence and  wealth.  The  simple,  pure  teachings  of  the 
Christ  had  been  lost  in  a  maze  of  intricate  rulings, 
while  the  glory  of  the  Church — and  that  a  temporal 
glory — almost  completely  eclipsed  the  Kingdom  that 
is  not  of  this  world. 

Yet  for  certain  classes  of  society,  at  least,  life  in 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries  was  brilliant,  if 

205 


206  "  THE  LITTLE  BROTHER  " 

it  was  not  deep  and  satisfying.  A  new  era  of  build- 
ing, in  which  beauty  combined  with  strength,  was  be- 
ginning. A  larger  commercial  activity,  born  of  the 
new  intercourse  between  peoples,  was  a  result  of  the 
Crusades.  The  wealth  and  beauty  of  the  East  had 
found  their  way  into  Europe.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
finer  sensibilities  of  men  and  women  were  too  often 
dulled  by  constant  warfare  and  the  worship  of  ma- 
terial good.  Mercy  and  pity  were  almost  unknown. 
It  was  an  age  in  which  might  made  right,  and  posses- 
sions were  retained  only  by  force  of  arms.  For  the 
sufferings  of  the  lower  classes  there  were  few  to  care 
until  the  Little  Brother  of  Assisi  espoused  Lady  Pov- 
erty and,  without  staff  or  scrip,  went  forth  to  preach 
again  the  long-lost  tidings  of  joy.  He  went  to  the 
common  people  and,  even  as  with  Another  and  a 
Greater,  the  common  people  heard  him  gladly. 

Assisi  is  to-day  chiefly  interesting  to  the  stranger 
for  its  connection  with  this  humble  follower  of  the 
Christ.  Faithful  and  heretic  alike  traverse  wide  seas 
to  look  reverently  upon  the  little  chapel  in  which  the 
Son  of  God  revealed  Himself  to  Francis,  the  church 
where  the  saint  lies  buried,  and  the  frescoes  in  which 
the  great  Florentine  Primitive,  Giotto,  has  told  the 
story  of  this  simple  but  wonderful  life.  The  town 
lies  on  the  slope  of  Monte  Subasio  and  looks  out  over 
the  Umbrlan  plain.  Above  the  climbing  terraces  the 
ruins  of  a  feudal  castle  speak  of  other  times  and  other 
manners,  while  a  Roman  amphitheatre  and  the  facade 
of  a  Roman  temple  carry  one  back  still  farther  across 
the  chasm  of  the  centuries.  The  fa(;ade  and  bell  tower 
of  the  cathedral — San  Rufino — were  completed  In 
Francis'  day.  The  little  church  of  St.  Damlan,  the 
saint's  Bethel,  has  hardly  changed  at  all  since  Francis 


ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI  207 

restored  It,  and  the  simple  rooms  at  the  side  still  seem 
to  echo  the  footsteps  of  Santa  Clara.  The  church  of 
Sta.  Maria  degli  Angeli  guards  beneath  its  dome  the 
chapel  of  the  Portiuncula  and  the  site  of  his  father's 
home  is  remembered  by  the  Chiesa  Nuova. 

Francis  Bernardone  was  born  in  Assisi  in  1182, 
while  his  father  was  absent  in  France  for  the  pur- 
chase of  the  costly  fabrics  in  which  he  dealt.  The 
baby  was  christened  John,  but  his  father  on  his  return 
chose  to  call  the  boy  Francis,  perhaps  from  love  of 
that  fair  land,  the  language  of  which  he  had  his  son 
learn.  Surrounded  by  all  the  luxuries  that  wealth 
could  procure,  the  lad  led  a  care-free  and  careless  life, 
easily  by  nature  a  leader  among  his  comrades,  and 
participating  in  all  the  buffooneries  and  extravagances 
of  which  Assisan  youth  were  capable.  Yet  we  read 
of  him  in  attendance  in  his  father's  shop  and  know 
that  his  mother  never  lost  faith  in  him.  At  the  age 
of  twenty-two  Francis  was  taken  prisoner  by  the 
Perugians  in  a  battle  between  the  two  cities,  and  on 
his  release  fell  into  a  lingering  sickness,  which  brought 
him  face  to  face  with  death.  During  the  time  of  his 
recovery  he  wandered  one  day  through  the  Porta 
Nuova  out  into  the  smiling  countryside  in  which  he 
had  joyed  so  much  in  the  old  days.  Somehow  the 
brightness  had  gone  from  mountain  and  plain  and  only 
a  great  unhappiness  filled  his  soul.  He  knew  at  last 
how  little  the  life  he  had  been  leading  could  ever  sat- 
isfy his  deeper  nature,  and  yet  there  was  almost  noth- 
ing in  the  religious  teachings  of  his  childhood  to  fill 
the  aching  void  in  his  soul.  Again  he  threw  himself 
into  his  old  life  of  pleasure,  enlisting  to  serve  under 
Walter  of  Brienne  in  southern  Italy;  but  he  proceeded 
only  as  far  as  the  neighbouring  town  of   Spoleto, 


208  "THE  LITTLE  BROTHER" 

whence  he  turned  back  to  fight  in  a  longer  and  more 
glorious  campaign. 

He  found  his  way  little  by  little.  Often  he  wan- 
dered alone  in  the  fields  or  withdrew  to  the  silence  of 
a  grotto  outside  the  walls,  where  he  cried  aloud  in  an 
agony  of  repentance.  Again  he  would  spend  hours 
praying  in  the  poor  chapels  on  the  outskirts  of  Assisi. 
One  day,  as  he  knelt  before  the  altar  of  St.  Damian, 
pleading  for  light,  the  Christ  on  the  crucifix  seemed  to 
become  a  present,  living  Friend,  and  in  the  hushed 
silence  of  the  place,  to  speak  to  him  the  words  of  peace 
for  which  he  had  been  so  long  waiting.  In  that  mo- 
ment he  knew  that  the  Christ  desired  his  service,  his 
life,  himself,  and  he  yielded  all  to  Him  with  utter  glad- 
ness of  soul.  Not  in  all  the  years  of  that  first  love  of 
the  churches,  not  among  the  great  leaders  of  our 
Protestant  era,  would  it  seem  that  any  soul  has  come 
into  a  more  direct,  vital  union  with  Jesus  Christ  than 
this  humble  child  of  the  Faith,  bred  amid  the  formal- 
ism of  the  Catholic  Church  of  the  twelfth  century. 
Of  a  truth,  love  is  greater  than  form  or  creed. 

If  he  had  been  as  others,  Francis  would  have  at 
once  entered  some  monastic  order.  He  chose,  instead, 
to  renounce  the  world  without  renouncing  humanity. 
Having  been  granted  a  vision  of  the  love  of  Jesus  for 
him,  his  only  thought  was,  "  Lord,  what  wilt  thou 
have  me  to  do?"  He  began  with  the  restoration  of 
the  little  chapel  in  which  he  had  found  his  Christ. 
Should  not  the  places  set  apart  for  his  Lord's  earthly 
dwelling  be  rendered  worthy  of  Him  whose  presence 
made  them  holy  ground? 

These  days  were,  however,  only  a  probation  period. 
A  greater  work,  his  life's  service,  was  awaiting  the 
new  disciple.     The  call  came  on  a  winter  day  of  the 


ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI  209 

year  1209,  in  the  words  of  the  lesson  at  the  chapel  of 
the  Portiuncula,  where  Francis  was  listening  to  the 
mass  for  St.  Matthias'  day.  As  if  the  Master  were 
speaking  to  him,  he  heard  the  solemn  command : 

"Wherever  ye  go  preach,  saying,  The  kingdom  of 
heaven  is  at  hand.  Heal  the  sick,  cleanse  the  leper, 
cast  out  devils.  Freely  ye  have  received,  freely  give. 
Provide  neither  silver  nor  gold  nor  brass  in  your 
purses,  neither  scrip  nor  two  coats,  nor  shoes  nor  staff, 
for  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his  meat." 

Without  further  questioning,  Francis  began  his  mis- 
sionary labours.  The  very  next  morning  found  him 
in  Assisi,  speaking  simply  to  the  common  folk  of  the 
joy  he  found  in  serving  his  Lord.  Thereafter,  at 
home  and  abroad,  he  published  everywhere  the  glad 
tidings  of  peace  and  of  love.  With  keen  sorrow  he 
must  have  realized  how  all  about  him  the  hungry  sheep 
looked  up  and  were  not  fed ;  how  little  in  truth  priest 
and  bishop — blind  shepherds — were  capable  of  feeding 
their  flocks ;  and  above  all,  how  few  of  the  sheep  cared 
to  find  the  green  pastures  and  the  Good  Shepherd. 

We  can  hardly  realize  to-day  how  sweetly  this  voice 
of  love  must  have  fallen  upon  the  ears  of  men  and 
women  wandering  so  long  in  the  darkness  of  night. 
Anointed,  not  by  the  Church  but  by  the  Christ 
Himself,  "  to  preach  good  tidings  unto  the  meek;  to 
bind  up  the  broken-hearted;  to  comfort  the  mourner; 
and  to  give  beauty  for  ashes,  the  oil  of  joy  for  the 
spirit  of  heaviness,"  Francis  Bernardone  became  the 
great  herald  of  a  better  day.  The  Christ  came 
again  to  Italy  through  a  humble  servant,  whose  cre- 
dentials were  neither  learning  nor  princely  power, 
but  the  love  that  has  been  saving  the  world  ever  since 
it  was  shown  in  supreme  revelation  in  the  villages  and 


2,10  "THE  LITTLE  BROTHER" 

highways  of  Palestine  and  on  the  hill  Calvary.  That 
love  has  been  the  theme  of  every  truly  successful  win- 
ner of  souls  in  all  the  ages,  and  it  will  ever  be  the  great 
message  of  the  faithful  ambassador.  How  long  and 
tenderly  John  Carmichael's  first  sermon — his  mother's 
sermon — was  remembered  in  Drumtochty,  and  one 
cannot  help  wondering  if  more  such  simple  preaching 
of  that  wonderful  life  and  death — words  burning 
with  the  earnestness  of  the  messenger — would  not  fill 
our  empty  churches,  as  no  amount  of  "  popular " 
themes  will  ever  fill  them. 

And  Francis  succeeded  beyond  all  that  he  had 
dreamed.  For  two  years  he  had  walked  among  the 
Assisans  in  newness  of  life,  and  now  men  were  ready 
to  listen  with  respectful  attention  to  his  message.  To 
add  to  his  joy  one  and  then  another  left  all  and  fol- 
lowed with  him  in  the  footsteps  of  the  Master.  Lit- 
erally selling  all  and  going  forth  without  silver  or  gold, 
they  became  one  in  outward  condition  with  the  suffer- 
ing men  and  women  to  whom  they  felt  themselves  pri- 
marily called.  For  we  must  remember  that  social  con- 
ditions in  the  thirteenth  century  were  responsible  for 
a  great  class  of  wretched  beings  who  were  all  but  help- 
less to  change  their  lot.  To  these  the  heart  of  the 
gentle  Francis  went  out  in  pity.  But  there  was  a  yet 
deeper  reason,  we  know,  for  the  adoption  of  a  rule  of 
absolute  poverty.  Every  attempt  to  reform  the 
Church  and  to  bring  back  to  it  its  spiritual  inheritance 
had  sooner  or  later  been  frustrated  by  the  love  of  the 
things  that  are.  In  this  feudal  age  Francis  said  sim- 
ply, "  If  we  have  possessions,  we  shall  have  need  to 
fight  to  hold  them.  Without  them,  we  shall  be  free  to 
seek  for  ourselves  and  for  others  possessions  which 
no  man  may  take  away  from  us." 


ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI  211 

These  conditions  were,  of  course,  imposed  upon  the 
apostle  only.  Of  others  Francis  asked  simply  that  the 
surplus  of  their  wealth  should  be  used  for  the  needy. 
Says  Dr.  Egan,  "  He,  Francis,  must  be,  like  Christ, 
free  from  the  ties  and  the  burdens  of  property,  and 
his  immediate  followers  must  be  likewise  free.  For 
them  was  both  the  active  and  contemplative  life;  but 
for  the  world,  no.  The  work  of  the  world,  in  the 
name  of  Christ,  must  be  carried  on  by  human  means. 
God  Himself,  in  sending  His  Son  as  man,  had  done 
this ;  He  had  dignified  human  relations."  ^  And  in 
this  teaching  we  still  recognize  the  voice  of  the  Master. 
For  is  not  all  that  we  call  our  own  God's  loan  to  us  ? 
Surely  He  means  us  to  possess  and  enjoy,  but  zvith 
and  for  others.  If  His  followers  faithfully  rendered 
to  Him  that  which  is  His,  would  our  missionary  so- 
cieties ever  be  forced  to  plead  for  funds  or  ever  find 
it  necessary  to  turn  from  their  schools  those  to  whom 
Christian  education  means  so  much? 

Very  swiftly  the  days  passed,  while  the  little  com- 
pany of  Brothers  Minor  grew  in  numbers  and  in  en- 
thusiasm. In  the  fair  summer  weather  they  wandered 
through  all  the  neighbouring  country,  working  in  the 
fields  side  by  side  with  the  Umbrian  peasants  and 
speaking  to  them  of  the  Christ  whom  they  had  left  all 
to  follow.  Sometimes  the  friars  served  in  the  house- 
holds of  the  citizens  and  so  gained  a  hearing  for  the 
truth.  Only  when  work  failed  them  were  they  al- 
lowed to  ask  for  bread. 

From  such  services  the  Penitents  returned  to  the 

Portiuncula,  where  their  intervals  of  rest  were  spent. 

Around  the  little  chapel  they  built  rude  shelters  of 

boughs  and  lived  very  simply  in  companionship  with 

*Egan,  "  Everybody's  St.  Francis." 


212  "THE  LITTLE  BROTHER" 

their  beloved  leader  and  in  meditation  and  in  com- 
munion with  nature.  They  had  need  of  these  blessed 
hours  with  Francis  and  from  those  small  beginnings 
to  the  day  he  gave  over  the  generalship  to  Peter  di 
Catana,  he  was  the  soul  and  inspiration  of  his  Order. 
"  His  love  changed  their  hearts  and  shed  over  their 
whole  persons  a  radiance  of  light  and  joy." 

We  must  not  suppose,  however,  that  the  path  was  all 
free  from  thorns  and  briars.  Such  simplicity  of  life 
and  of  teaching  could  not  fail  to  gain  detractors. 
Partly  because  of  the  rapid  increase  of  the  Brothers, 
partly  from  the  unwillingness  of  many  to  receive  them, 
Francis  decided  to  ask  for  a  recognition  of  their  work 
from  the  Pope  at  Rome.  He  knew  that  Innocent  the 
Third  was  gaining  the  admiration  of  right-thinking 
men  by  his  firm  stand  on  questions  of  morality,  and 
true  Catholic  that  he  was,  he  longed  for  the  blessing 
of  the  Church's  earthly  head  upon  the  labours  he  had 
undertaken.  In  his  simplicity  of  faith  he  seems  not 
to  have  dreamed  that  this  man  of  power,  Christ's  vicar 
on  earth,  might  be  incapable  of  understanding  and  ap- 
preciating the  kind  of  service  of  which  his  Lord's  life 
was  so  full.  Pope  Innocent  could  build  the  walls  of 
an  earthly  Zion  and  summon  men  to  fight  for  the  pos- 
session of  the  tomb  in  which  the  body  of  the  Christ 
had  lain,  but  he  was  slow  to  apprehend  such  a  life  of 
self-denial  as  that  to  which  Francis  and  his  Brothers 
had  dedicated  themselves.  A  man  of  power  is  not 
necessarily  a  man  in  whom  love  dwells. 

Gentle  as  Francis  was  in  the  face  of  all  suffering, 
he  could  stand  firmly,  almost  stubbornly,  for  the  prin- 
ciples in  which  he  believed,  and  at  last  he  won,  ap- 
parently at  least,  the  authorization  which  he  sought. 

"  Go,  my  brethren,"  the  Pope  said,  "  and  may  God 


ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI  213 

be  with  you.  Preach  penitence  to  every  one  according 
as  the  Lord  may  deign  to  inspire  you.  Then,  when 
the  All-powerful  shall  have  made  you  multiply  and  go 
forward,  you  will  refer  to  us;  we  will  concede  what 
you  ask,  and  we  may  then  with  greater  security  accord 
to  you  even  more  than  yon  ask." 

How  little  Francis  dreamed  what  these  last  words 
were  meant  to  cover.  The  event  proved  that  "  the 
prophet  had  abdicated  in  favour  of  the  priest." 

But  as  yet  the  glory  of  the  morning  shone  upon  the 
faces  of  these  humble,  compassionate  men,  as,  clad  in 
the  simple  brown  robe  of  the  Umbrian  peasant,  they 
gathered  about  them  audiences  of  earnest  hearers  in 
market-place  or  at  street  corner  and  preached  the  gos- 
pel of  the  Christ  in  a  simplicity  of  form  very  remark- 
able in  that  mediaeval  age.  Not  again,  perhaps,  till  the 
Reformation  should  have  cleared  away  the  dust  of 
centuries,  would  men  be  brought  so  fully  face  to  face 
with  the  great  fundamental  requirements  of  salvation, 
— repentance  and  a  new  life,  and  the  immediate  and 
direct  relationship  of  the  individual  soul  with  Jesus 
Christ.  And  yet  Francis,  "  the  arch  heretic  of  his 
age,"  remained  through  life  in  the  bosom  of  the 
Church,  not  recognizing  the  great  gulf  that  lay  be- 
tween his  faith  and  the  doctrine  and  practice  of  so 
many  of  his  contemporaries.  With  his  extraordinary 
clearness  of  vision,  he  looked  through  and  beyond 
forms,  and  in  his  simplicity  of  heart,  he  judged  others 
as  himself. 

Almost  before  he  knew  it,  Francis  found  himself 
the  leader  and  inspirer  of  a  great  army  of  Christian 
labourers. 

In  this  rapid  growth  lay  a  principal  cause  of  the 
later  changes  in  the  ideals  of  the  Order  which  brought 


214.  "  THE  LITTLE  BROTHER  " 

so  great  a  sorrow  to  its  founder.  As  we  have  already 
said,  it  was  the  springtime  of  Hfe  in  southern  Europe 
in  that  thirteenth  century, — the  age  of  troubadour  and 
minnesinger,  of  de  Born,  of  von  der  Vogelweide,  of 
Sordello,  of  von  Eschenbach.  True  child  of  his  age, 
Francis  loved  the  Provencal  tongue  and  sent  forth  his 
disciples  as  ""  jongleurs  du  bon  Dieu "  to  win  their 
hearers  by  song  as  well  as  by  exhortation.  He  led  men 
to  feel  a  deeper  joy  in  nature  and  in  the  whole  great 
brotherhood  of  God's  creatures.  No  more  beautiful 
poem  has  come  down  to  us  from  mediaeval  times  than 
"  The  Canticle  of  the  Sun,"  composed  in  those  last 
years  of  depression.  The  knighthood,  the  chivalry,  of 
the  age  Francis  strove  to  enlist  for  noble  ends.  Instead 
of  summoning  men  to  a  crusade  to  restore  the  tomb  of 
the  Saviour,  he  pleaded  with  them  to  bring  the  Christ 
to  those  for  whom  He  lived  and  died.  He  taught  them 
the  love  of  Christ  that  goes  out  in  compassion  to  all 
weakness  and  suffering;  he  recognized,  too,  and  blessed 
that  love  of  man  for  woman  that  is  the  foundation  of 
the  true  home.  It  was  a  grand  purpose,  and  its  spirit 
would  have  transformed  Italy  and  the  world,  could  it 
have  been  grasped  by  the  great  army  of  men  and 
women  who  had  taken  upon  themselves  the  name  of 
Christian;  for  it  was  the  spirit  of  the  Master.  But 
the  time  was  not,  perhaps  is  not  yet.  Little  by  little, 
under  the  influence  of  Cardinal  Ugolino  and  the  Pope, 
the  brotherhood  became  a  monastic  order,  and  within 
a  century  of  Francis'  death  a  vast  army  of  mendicants 
bearing  but  little  resemblance  to  the  missionary  la- 
bourers of  Francis'  day.  Something  of  all  this  fail- 
ure Francis  foresaw,  but  found  himself  powerless  in 
the  face  of  the  mighty  forces  cf  the  Church.  In 
those  last  days  of  his  life,  when  he  realized  that  there 


ST.  FRxVXCIS  OF  ASSISI  215 

were  in  his  brotherhood  those  ^Yho  utterly  failed  to 
grasp  tlie  deeper  meaning  of  the  Rule,  and  when  he 
knew  that  at  last  he  must  submit  to  a  remoulding  of 
his  Order,  this  great  soul  reminds  one  of  Lazarus, 
glorified  with  the  vision  of  heaven  and  yet  conscious 
that  he  cannot  communicate  that  glor>'  to  others. 

"  He  holds  on  firmly  to  some  thread  of  life — 
(It  is  the  life  to  lead  perforcedly) 
Which  runs  across  some  vast  distracting  orb 
Of  glory  on  either  side  that  meagre  thread, 
Which,  conscious  of,  he  must  not  enter  yet — 


So  is  the  man  perplexed  with  impulses, 

'  It  should  be  '  balked  by  '  here  it  cannot  be.' "  * 


What  a  grand  missionan,-  campaign  that  had  been 
in  the  home  country.  Almost  it  seemed  that  the  little 
peninsula  was  to  be  lifted  out  of  itself,  glorified  and 
transformed,  and  made  the  messenger  of  the  Most 
High.  No  one  will  ever  read  the  hidden  page  or  ever 
know  what  marvels  the  love  of  Christ  might  have 
wrought  in  Europe,  had  the  ministers  of  God  conse- 
crated themselves  to  the  task  of  carrying  on  the  work 
so  strangely  begun.  As  it  proved,  they  did  not  even 
know  its  meaning. 

With  such  success  at  home,  no  wonder  that  Francis 
became  possessed  with  a  great  longing  to  carr}'  the 
good  news  to  other  peoples.  Tn  the  year  121 2  he 
sailed  for  Syria  to  preach  to  the  Infidel,  but  the  pros- 
pect of  an  indefinite  delay  in  Slavonia  induced  him  to 
turn  back.  Again,  a  few  years  later,  he  set  out  for 
Spain  to  preacli  to  the  Moors,  but  he  fell  ill  and  this 

*"An  Epistle,"  Robert  Browning. 


216  "THE  LITTLE  BROTHER" 

mission  also  ended  without  results.  Finally,  in  12 19, 
Francis  accompanied  an  army  of  Crusaders  sailing  for 
Egypt.  A  great  number  of  Brothers  came  to  him.  at 
Ancona,  the  port  of  departure,  but  there  was  room  on 
the  ships  for  only  a  few  of  these  enthusiastic  missiona- 
ries. Unwilling  to  cause  any  of  them  pain  or  to 
arouse  jealousy,  Francis  called  a  little  child  and  bade 
him  indicate  the  eleven  friars  who  should  be  allowed 
to  undertake  the  journey. 

The  Crusaders  were  besieging  Damietta.  Some 
time  during  those  long  months  Francis  succeeded  in 
finding  his  way  to  the  Sultan,  by  whom,  despite  the 
hostilities  of  the  moment,  this  sincere  lover  of  souls 
was  received  with  all  kindness,  and  after  a  few  days 
returned  to  the  camp  under  Moslem  safe  conduct. 
Damietta  surrendered  to  the  Christians  November  5, 
12 19,  after  a  siege  which  had  lasted  many  months. 
The  scenes  which  followed  the  taking  of  the  city,  like 
so  many  others  in  those  so-called  Holy  Wars,  are  a  blot 
upon  Christian  annals.  These  horrors,  together  with 
the  evil  lives  of  many  of  the  Crusaders,  sorely 
wounded  the  true-hearted  Francis,  and,  realizing  how 
fruitless  all  missionary  effort  must  be  with  the  living 
example  of  the  Crusaders  to  disprove  his  words,  he 
departed  for  Syria  to  visit  the  scenes  of  his  Lord's 
earthly  life. 

The  return  of  Francis  to  Italy  was  follow^ed  by  a 
rude  awakening.  The  old,  old  desire  for  property 
and  for  a  system  of  monastic  discipline  was  beginning 
to  be  heard  among  some  of  the  more  recent  disciples, 
and  was  urged  very  earnestly  by  the  Church.  The 
lay  brotherhood,  essentially  missionary  in  its  character, 
was  in  danger  of  becoming  a  monastic  order,  with  all 
attendant  evils.     The  very  humility  of  the  saint  was 


ST.  FRANCIS  OF  ASSISI  217 

against  the  maintenance  of  his  ideals.  Cardinal  Ugo- 
lino  presented  his  case  strongly.  Was  not  the 
Church's  head  Christ's  representative  on  earth?  Yet 
Francis  was  setting  his  own  interpretation  of  gospel 
teaching  over  against  that  of  the  Venerable  Father  at 
Rome.  And  what  had  been  the  result  but  dissension  ? 
It  was  hard  for  a  sensitive  soul  to  withstand  the  re- 
bukes of  a  friend  and  to  go  on  believing  in  his  own 
superior  intuition.  For  the  time,  therefore,  Francis 
yielded  and  in  1220  gave  over  the  leadership  of  the 
Order  to  Peter  di  Catana.  A  new  Rule,  far  fuller  in 
detail  than  the  first  and  omitting  altogether  the  instruc- 
tions to  the  Brothers  to  carry  nothing  with  them  on 
their  evangelistic  tours,  was  soon  issued.  Thereafter, 
almost  to  the  time  of  his  death,  the  exuberant  joy 
which  had  transfigured  this  devout  follower  of  the 
Christ  was  gone.  The  renunciation  of  his  ideal  of 
poverty  for  the  Order  was  a  death  blow.  For  to  him 
this  meant  renunciation  of  the  true  heart-following  of 
the  Master,  that  giving  up  of  all  things  which  hold  the 
soul  back  to  earth.  To  the  very  end  he  kept  the  ideal 
for  himself  and  rejoiced  to  find  many  still  faithful  to 
the  principles  of  those  early  days.^ 

Gradually  weakness  fell  upon  Francis.  He  re- 
turned to  St.  Damian  for  a  visit  with  the  Sisters  and, 
among  the  flowers  and  olives  of  the  monastery  garden, 
where  they  erected  for  him  a  shelter  of  reeds,  he  com- 
posed the  Canticle  of  the  Sun.  The  old  joy  had  re- 
turned.    A  year  later,  at  the  Portiuncula,  he  crossed 

1  Setting  aside  Francis'  economic  theory,  which  would  seem 
untenable  in  our  day,  can  we  imagine  even  faintly  the  possible 
results  from  the  realization  of  his  spirit  of  Christian  love  and 
brotherhood  in  business  life  and  in  the  settlement  of  labour 
problems  ? 


S18  "THE  LITTLE  BROTHER" 

those  boundaries  which  in  life  had  hardly  kept  him 
from  the  immediate  presence  of  his  Lord.  Those  last 
days  were  spent  in  singing,  for  to  Francis  death  was  a 
joyous  beginning,  not  an  end.  Not  long  before  the 
final  passing  they  read  to  him  the  gospel  lesson,  words 
which  were  so  fitting  a  picture  of  his  own  life :  "  Be- 
fore the  feast  of  the  Passover,  Jesus  knowing  that  his 
hour  was  come  to  go  from  this  world  to  the  Father, 
having  loved  his  own  who  were  in  the  world,  he  loved 
them  even  to  the  end." 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  characters  of  all  time,  St. 
Francis  of  Assisi  belongs  to  every  church  and  nation ; 
for  he  is  the  embodiment  of  one  of  the  great  cardinal 
principles  of  all  true  Christianity.  As  only  few  have 
understood,  he  understood  the  great,  compassionate 
heart  of  the  Master.  He  lived  not  unto  himself,  but 
unto  others.  The  very  mistakes  he  made,  though 
bearing  the  tinge  of  the  century  in  which  he  lived, 
were  the  outcome  of  his  fear  of  losing  the  Christ  out 
of  life.  Like  those  earlier  apostles  of  the  western 
isles,  he  spent  his  whole  life  in  serving,  and  one  must 
believe  that  the  great  joy  of  heaven  for  this  lover 
of  the  Christ  has  been  the  eager  watching  of  the 
growth  upon  earth  of  his  Lord's  kingdom  of  peace 
and  goodwill  and  that  somewhere  he  is  still  serving. 
One  cannot  imagine  this  messenger  of  joy  happy,  even 
among  the  Blessed,  without  a  part  in  his  Lord's  work. 


Ill 

A  KNIGHT  OF  OLD  SPAIN 
Raymund  Lull 

"  He  was  a  verray  parfit  gentle  knight." 

— Chaucer. 

"  He  who  loves  not  lives  not ;  he  who  lives  by  the  Life  cannot 
die." — Raymund  Lull. 

AT  the  hour  before  the  gloaming,  wandering  in 
the  chapels  of  ancient  abbey  or  cathedral  or 
■  in  the  tranquil  seclusion  of  some  village  church 
of  Norman  or  early  Gothic  time,  you  have,  perhaps, 
come  upon  the  worn  effigies  of  mailed  knight  and  fair 
lady  at  rest  after  life's  fitful  fever.  In  a  moment  the 
grey  walls  faded  away,  and  you  were  living  again 
in  the  old  chronicles.  Against  a  background  of  the 
hearthfire's  ruddy  glow,  the  wail  of  the  winter  wind, 
and  the  white  flutter  of  flakes  against  the  window 
pane,  you  knew  those  old  romances  and  adventure 
tales,  all  their  harsher  features  smoothed  away  by  the 
poet's  tender  touch.  And  it  was  better  so;  for  it  is 
God's  way.  He  alone  knows  how  great  is  the  beauty 
lying  at  the  heart  of  our  old  world,  how  much  of  all 
that  seems  wrong  and  ugly  is  a  crude  expression  of 
noble  gifts  in  natures  as  yet  but  half  grown  up  into 
the  stature  one  day  to  be  theirs.  And  so  He  chooses 
that  His  best  interpreters  shall  paint  life  in  the  violet 
tints  of  distant  mountain  ranges  or  with  the  softening 

219 


220  A  KNIGHT  OF  OLD  SPAIN 

veil  of  twilight  mystery — with  the  charity  that  trans- 
figures whatever  it  touches.  The  chivalry  of  court 
and  castle,  the  glow  and  the  splendour  which  would 
to-day,  perchance,  be  put  to  better  uses,  form  a  poetry 
of  life  which  is  a  rich  gift  from  by-gone  centuries. 
The  wonder  and  the  imagination  of  childhood  the 
really  great  soul  never  loses  in  the  march  of  the  years. 
Conquest — the  soul  was  meant  for  that,  and  for  beauty 
and  grandeur  and  splendour.  Oxily  with  succeeding 
ages  come  new  interpretations  of  all  that  glow  of 
colour  that  here  or  elsewhere  has  satisfied  every  true 
soul.  At  its  highest  the  old-time  chivalry  was  a  quest 
for  this  poetry  of  heroic  and  courteous  living.  Those 
knights  of  the  old  days  fought  and  loved  with  all  the 
ardour  of  youth  and  too  often  with  its  cruelty.  Yet  in 
many  of  them,  one  must  believe,  aspiration  for  good 
as  they  knew  it  never  died.  In  the  silent  church  they 
sleep  with  hands  folded  in  prayer,  a  symbol  of  peni- 
tence and  faith. 

"  Their  good  swords  rust, 
Their  souls  are  with  the  saints,  we  trust," 

long  ago  entered  into  the  glory  and  the  beauty  after 
which  they  felt  blindly  in  centuries  when  not  the  word 
of  God,  but  superstition,  was  guide. 

In  every  age,  nevertheless,  there  are  souls  which 
penetrate  deeper  into  God's  truth  than  the  multitude 
of  their  fellows.  They  behold  and  in  some  measure 
attain  to  heights  which  the  struggling  mass  of  hu- 
manity will  reach,  mayhap,  only  in  centuries.  Such 
a  one  was  the  Little  Brother  of  Assisi.  Such  a  one 
also  was  Raymund  Lull,  who,  in  an  age  still  thrilling 
with  the  challenge  of  the  Crusades,  and  with  the  more 
immediate   strife  of   Christian   ard   Moor   in   Spain, 


RAYMUND  LULL  221 

learned  the  meaning  of  knighthood  as  the  Christ 
taught  it,  and  from  a  brilliant  but  corrupt  Spanish 
court  set  out  on  a  life-long  crusade  having  for  its  pur- 
pose the  winning  to  his  Lord,  by  reason  or  by  per- 
suasion, of  the  Moslem  world  across  the  blue  Mediter- 
ranean. More  than  five  hundred  years  before  Henry 
Marty n  began  preaching  to  the  Mohammedans  of  In- 
dia, this  man  with  the  prophet  vision  apprehended  the 
well-nigh  forgotten  truth  that  not  by  might  nor  by 
power,  but  by  more  peaceful  means  must  the  Kingdom 
of  God  and  the  knowledge  of  His  Christ  be  spread 
abroad  throughout  the  world. 

Thirty  years  before  the  close  of  the  sixth  century 
there  was  born  among  the  rocks  and  sands  of  Arabia 
a  wild  Bedouin  destined  to  become  the  Prophet  of 
Islam.  A  "  swift-handed,  deep-hearted "  race  were 
these  Arabians,  true  sons  of  the  desert,  whom  Nature 
had  surrounded  with  a  desolate  grandeur  and  in  whom 
she  had  bred  a  fierce  and  untamable  courage. 
Through  their  isolation  from  the  world  they  had  re- 
mained idolaters,  though  in  the  Prophet's  day  with  lit- 
tle enough  religion  of  any  kind.  Even  here,  however, 
Christianity  had  probably  its  converts,  as  had  also 
Judaism.  Mohammed,  born  of  a  noble  house,  but 
early  losing  both  parents  and  grandparents,  became  a 
keeper  of  herds,  in  the  solitary  fastnesses  developing 
a  certain  meditative  and  questioning  attitude  which 
perhaps  accounts  for  his  later  "  revelations."  "  The 
great  mystery  of  existence,"  says  Carlyle,  "  glared  in 
upon  him  with  its  terrors,  with  its  splendour.  .  .  . 
From  of  old,  a  thousand  thoughts  in  his  pilgrimings 
and  wanderings,  had  been  in  this  man :  What  am  I  ? 
What  is  this  unfathomable  Thing  I  live  in,  which  men 


222  A  KNIGHT  OF  OLD  SPAIN 

call  Universe?  What  is  life?  What  is  death? 
What  am  I  to  believe?  What  am  I  to  do?  .  .  . 
There  was  no  answer.  The  man's  own  soul  and  what 
of  God's  inspiration  dwelt  there  had  to  answer."  And 
for  the  most  part  the  Prophet  found  his  way  into  his 
strange,  wild  monotheism  for  himself,  and  gave  his  re- 
ligion the  image  of  his  own  soul,  the  soul  of  an  Arab 
sheik,  whose  God  is  a  mighty  ruler,  a  deity  of  sublime 
majesty,  like  the  stern  vastnesses  of  his  desert  home, 
but  in  ethical  and  paternal  attributes  not  even  the 
Jehovah  of  the  most  remote  ages. 

Propagated  by  the  sword,  the  faith  of  the  Prophet 
in  the  years  following  his  death  reached  far  into  the 
heart  of  Asia  and  threw  its  crescent  westerly  along 
the  northern  shores  of  Africa  in  a  long  curve  into  the 
Spanish  peninsula.  Charles  Martel,  on  the  field  of 
Tours,  stayed  the  Moors  in  their  northward  advance. 
Charlemagne  pursued  them  beyond  the  Pyrenees,  giv- 
ing mediaeval  Europe  material  for  the  Chanson  de 
Roland.  Step  by  step  the  Spanish  knights  of  Leon 
and  Castile  won  their  way  southward,  though  not  for 
more  than  a  century  and  a  half  after  Raymund  Lull's 
day  was  the  last  Moorish  stronghold,  Granada,  wrested 
from  its  Saracen  possessors.  With  their  conquests 
territorially  had  gone  also  intellectual  activity,  and  in 
those  years  of  darkness  and  ignorance  it  was  the  Mos- 
lem who  kept  alight  the  lamp  of  learning.  To  win 
this  folk  from  their  half-pagan,  half-Hebrew  faith 
to  the  fuller,  grander  religion  of  the  Christ  was  the 
quest  on  which  the  Knight  of  Majorca  set  forth  in 
that  far-off  thirteenth  century,  and  it  is  this  same 
Moslem  world  which  to-day,  six  centuries  after  Lull's 
time,  remains  the  great  problem  before  which  our  mis- 
sion boards  have  been  all  but  helpless. 


RAYMUND  LULL  223 

Among  the  flowers  and  palms  and  fruits  of  Ma- 
jorca, beneath  skies  of  the  bluest  blue  and  by  the  sea 
breezes  of  the  beautiful  bay  of  Palma,  Raymund  Lull 
grew  to  young  manhood  in  a  home  furnished  with 
mediaeval  splendour  and  luxury.  His  father  was  a 
native  of  Catalonia,  a  province  of  eastern  Spain. 
When  in  1232  the  Balearic  Islands,  once  the  home  of 
Roman  colonists,  but  for  many  years  an  independent 
Moorish  kingdom,  expelled  the  Saracens  under  the 
leadership  of  James  of  Aragon,  the  elder  Lull  fought 
on  the  side  of  the  Christians.  He  was  rewarded  for 
his  services  with  an  estate  near  Palma,  where  his  dis- 
tinguished son  was  born  in  1235  and  where  to-day  the 
great  missionary  agitator  rests  in  peace  in  the  Church 
of  San  Francisco. 

Grown  to  manhood.  Lull  became  seneschal  at  the 
court  of  James  the  Second,  King  of  Aragon.  Un- 
awakened  as  yet  to  higher  things,  the  young  knight 
lived  the  life  of  those  around  him.  But  one  surmises 
that  the  hollowness  and  vanity  of  the  brilliant  but  dis- 
solute court  atmosphere  sometimes  oppressed  this  man 
of  splendid  mental  and  moral  possibilities.  Visions 
even  in  a  thirteenth  century  do  not  come  to  a  wholly 
unprepared  mind.  And  it  was  a  vision  of  the  dying 
Christ,  looking  down  from  the  cross  with  compassion- 
ate and  reproachful  gaze,  that  led  Raymund  Lull  away 
from  the  temptations  of  the  court,  back  to  his  native 
Palma.  As  with  St.  Francis,  so  the  conversion  of  this 
knight  of  Old  Spain  was  gradual  in  its  development; 
but  few  of  a  later  time  have  come  into  a  more  simple, 
true  fellowship  with  the  Christ  than  Raymund  Lull  at 
last  attained  to,  and  no  meditations  of  the  mediaeval 
age  are  so  Protestant  in  atmosphere  as  his  writings, 
while  in  his  dauntless  endeavours  for  the  inauguration 


224.  A  KNIGHT  OF  OLD  SPAIN 

of  a  crusade  of  love,  having  for  its  purpose  the  evan- 
gehzation  of  the  Moslem  world,  he  has  become  the 
honoured  of  all  time. 

It  was  the  story  of  St.  Francis  that  gave  Lull  the 
final  impetus  for  his  great  work.  With  true  mediaeval 
devotion,  he  followed  the  Assisan  saint's  example  to 
the  letter,  selling  his  great  possessions  and  giving  the 
proceeds  to  the  poor.  Of  his  wealth  he  reserved  only 
enough  for  the  support  of  his  family,  with  whom  he 
associated  himself  in  the  covenant  of  consecration 
which  he  drew  up  at  this  time, 

"  To  Thee,  Lord  God,  do  I  now  offer  myself  and 
my  wife  and  my  children  and  all  that  I  possess;  and 
since  I  approach  Thee  humbly  with  this  gift  and  sacri- 
fice, may  it  please  Thee  to  condescend  to  accept  all 
that  I  give  and  offer  up  now  for  Thee  that  I  and  my 
wife  and  my  children  may  be  Thy  humble  servants." 

As  mediaeval  chivalry  demanded  of  the  candidate 
for  knighthood  a  long  period  of  vigil  and  prayer  on 
the  eve  of  entrance  into  the  Order,  so  when  this  knight 
of  a  nobler  service  entered  upon  his  great  quest  he 
gave  himself  to  a  nine  years'  preparation  period,  dur- 
ing which  he  mastered  the  Arabic  language  and 
learned  many  lasting  lessons  in  the  school  of  the 
Christ.  It  was  all  so  new  to  him,  this  life  of  the 
spirit,  that  one  cannot  question  his  need  of  those 
months  of  seclusion.  When  at  last  Lull  was  ready  to 
enter  the  lists  against  Islam,  it  was  with  a  new  spiritual 
stature,  while,  in  the  acquirement  of  the  language  of 
the  Koran,  he  had  armed  himself  with  a  trusty  weapon. 

The  Mohammedan  faith,  against  which  this  knight 
of  Old  Spain  threw  himself  with  all  the  ardour  of  me- 
diaeval chivalry,  but  with  the  weapons  of  Christian 
argument  and  persuasion,  was  far  spread  and  deep- 


RAYMUND  LULL  225 

rooted  in  that  thirteenth  century.  The  Moors  still 
held  the  half  of  Spain.  In  Africa  and  the  East,  Islam 
was  daily  increasing  in  power,  full  of  a  fearless  con- 
fidence engendered  of  their  defeat  of  the  Crusading 
armies.  During  those  years  when  the  shadow  of  the 
sword  darkened  all  the  lands  of  Europe,  Saracen 
schools  had  guarded  the  key  of  the  treasure-house  of 
ancient  learning,  and  in  Lull's  day  Arabic  doctors  of 
philosophy  were  no  mean  opponents  before  whom  to 
throw  down  the  gauntlet  of  disputation.  On  the  other 
hand,  Raymund  Lull,  inspired  with  the  might  of  a 
great  consecration  and  an  ennobling  love,  and  endowed 
by  nature  with  subtle  reasoning  powers,  which  had 
been  developed  by  education,  became  one  of  the  great 
thinkers  of  his  age,  a  man  whose  name  stands  high 
on  the  roll  of  mediaeval  philosophers. 

The  task  to  which  Lull  had  given  himself  was  the 
preparation  of  a  volume  setting  forth  the  truths  of 
Christianity  so  cogently  that  the  Moslem  world  should 
be  convinced  and  converted.  Strange  as  it  may  seem, 
he  regarded  faith  and  reason  as  brethren.  One  sus- 
pects, indeed,  that,  had  he  lived  in  our  day,  he  would 
have  proved  himself  a  warm  friend  of  the  devout 
leaders  of  our  higher  criticism.  Being  a  child  of  his 
age,  he  endeavoured  to  prove  Christianity  a  rational 
faith  by  a  curious  system,  impossible  except  in  that 
age  of  scholasticism.  This  book  is  the  Ars  Major,  or 
Ars  Generalis,  which,  we  are  told,  contains  most  of 
the  essentials  of  his  philosophy.  The  Ars  Major  was 
completed  in  1275.  The  next  sixteen  years  Lull 
spent  in  lecturing  upon  his  new  science  of  religion  and 
in  agitation  for  the  establishment  of  schools  in  which 
the  Oriental  languages  should  be  taught  with  a  view  to 
missionary  preaching  and  labours  among  the  Saracens. 


226  A  KNIGHT  OF  OLD  SPAIN 

He  was  seeking,  and  vainly  seeking,  to  arouse  the 
Church  to  a  new  Crusade — a  Crusade  of  Christian 
love.  Near  the  close  of  life  he  wrote,  "  I  have  la- 
boured forty-five  years  to  gain  over  the  shepherds  of 
the  Church  and  the  princes  of  Europe  to  the  common 
good  of  Christendom." 

Not  much  success  attended  his  efforts.  James  the 
Second,  at  Lull's  instigation,  opened  a  missionary 
training  institute  at  either  Palma  or  Montpellier, — 
both  cities  were  at  the  time  under  the  jurisdiction  of 
Aragon.  But  he  longed  for  a  general  and  well-or- 
ganized movement.  It  was  at  Montpellier,  where  this 
prophet  of  missions  spent  some  years  in  study  and 
teaching,  that  he  wrote,  "  O  Lord  of  Glory,  if  that 
blessed  day  should  ever  be  in  which  I  might  see  Thy 
holy  monks  so  influenced  by  zeal  to  glorify  Thee  as 
to  go  to  foreign  lands  in  order  to  testify  of  Thy  holy 
ministry,  of  Thy  blessed  incarnation,  and  of  Thy  bit- 
ter sufferings,  that  would  be  a  glorious  day,  a  day  in 
which  the  glow  of  devotion  would  return  with  which 
the  holy  apostles  met  death  for  their  Lord  Jesus 
Christ." 

One  other  event  remains  to  be  recorded  before  we 
turn  to  Lull's  first  missionary  preaching.  He  had 
carried  his  cause  to  the  highest  court  of  appeal,  Rome, 
and  with  what  result?  He  who  should  have  read  in 
the  failure  of  arms  the  lesson  of  peaceful  warfare, 
chose  only  to  throw  his  whole  influence  into  a  vain 
attempt  to  awaken  Europe's  waning  zeal  for  the  Cru- 
sades. The  hopes  of  Nicholas  the  Fourth  were  disap- 
pointed, Acre  fell,  the  Latin  Kingdom  of  Jerusalem 
came  to  an  end,  and  the  counter  crusade  he  might  have 
inaugurated  remains  to  this  day  unfulfilled. 

Even  as  news  of  disaster  in  the  East  was  reaching 


RAYMUND  LULL  227 

Italy,  Raymund  Lull  was  setting  out  from  Genoa  to 
preach  the  gospel  to  the  infidel  in  North  Africa.  Per- 
haps in  all  mission  annals  there  is  record  of  no  more 
daring  deed.  To  venture  boldly  into  the  midst  of  a 
people  exuberant  with  the  joy  that  comes  of  the  defeat 
of  their  foes,  a  people  to  whom  apostasy  meant  death, 
and  whose  treatment  of  a  Christian  victim  was  often 
the  refinement  of  cruelty,  this  required  a  more  sublime 
courage  and  a  stronger  faith  than  is  often  found. 

And  Lull  himself  faltered  on  the  eve  of  sailing  and 
twice  returned  to  the  city  from  the  ship.  Arrived  at 
Tunis,  this  knight  of  the  Christ  summoned  the  scholars 
of  Islam  to  a  great  Parliament  of  Religions,  in  which 
he  pleaded  "  the  lack  of  love  in  the  being  of  Allah," 
which,  to  the  Christian,  is  revealed  in  the  Incarnation 
— the  life  and  death  of  Him  who  "  for  us  men  and 
our  salvation  became  man."  This  candid  comparison 
of  Islam  and  Christianity  was  not  without  results. 
Some  were  "  almost  persuaded  "  of  the  truth  of  the 
great  philosopher's  words,  but  authority  intervened, 
for  this  zealous  teacher  must  not  be  "  allowed  freely 
to  expose  the  errors  of  Islam."  Condemned  first  to 
death,  and  then  to  banishment,  he  succeeded  in  escap- 
ing from  the  returning  galley,  and  taught  three  months 
secretly  in  Goletta,  the  port  of  the  great  Moslem  city. 

Another  period  of  fifteen  years  of  preaching  and 
writing  was  followed  by  a  second  journey  to  Africa. 
During  the  interim,  he  visited  Armenia,  that  outpost 
against  the  Mohammedanism  of  Asia,  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  Jews,  and,  with  a  truly  modern  spirit  of 
toleration,  proposed  that  the  monastic  orders  lay  aside 
their  differences  and  unite  in  a  campaign  for  the  con- 
version of  the  Saracen. 

The  second  visit  to  North  Africa  was  largely  a  repe- 


228  A  KNIGHT  OF  OLD  SPAIN 

tition  of  the  first,  only  that  the  scene  was  changed 
from  Tunis  to  Bugia.  Exhortation  and  disputation 
in  the  market-place,  followed  by  imprisonment,  make 
up  the  record.  At  the  end  of  six  months  the  aged 
missionary  returned  to  Europe;  but  his  burning  zeal 
would  not  allow  him  to  rest,  and  in  August  of  13 14 
he  find  him  again  at  Bugia.  In  this  ancient  city, 
founded  by  the  Carthaginians,  and  in  Lull's  time  one 
of  the  foremost  commercial  cities  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, Lull  laboured  secretly  for  nearly  a  twelvemonth, 
rejoicing  in  a  little  company  of  believers  whom  he  had 
gathered  on  previous  visits  and,  single-handed,  en- 
deavouring to  break  down  the  impregnable  walls  of 
Islam. 

On  a  June  day  in  the  summer  following  his  arrival 
in  Bugia,  the  aged  knight  of  the  Christ  ventured  once 
more  boldly  into  the  market-place,  preaching  that  Love 
which  had  become  the  guiding  star  of  his  own  way. 
Moslem  fanaticism  was  aroused  by  his  daring  speech. 
With  one  accord  they  set  upon  him,  dragged  him  with- 
out the  city  gates,  and  stoned  him  to  death.  Thus  he 
obtained  the  martyrdom  which  always  gleamed  so 
brightly  before  the  mediaeval  Christian. 

At  a  time  when  chivalry,  the  flower  of  feudalism, 
had  been  spending  itself  in  the  Crusades,  Raymund 
Lull  entered  a  higher  knighthood,  taking  unto  himself 
the  breastplate  of  righteousness,  the  shield  of  faith, 
the  helmet  of  salvation,  and  the  sword  of  the  Spirit 
of  Love.  And  his  was  the  nobler  Order,  an  Order 
still  open  to  all  who  will  enter  it.  The  crusade  he 
preached  is  as  yet  but  hardly  begun. ^  In  the  solution 
of  the  problem  of  the  conversion  of  the  Moslem  world 
there  is  need  of  all  the  prowess  and  daring  of  modern 

*  Appendix  I,  note  5. 


RAYMUND  LULL  229 

knighthood.  Yet  this  must  be  a  campaign  waged  in 
the  spirit  of  love  and  with  the  weapons  of  reason  and 
persuasion — in  a  word,  by  a  practical  demonstration  of 
all  that  is  fine  and  high  in  our  Christian  faith  and 
civilization.  As  we  write  these  lines,  European  Chris- 
tian and  Mohammedan  Turk  are  just  emerging  from 
another  long  struggle,  in  which  the  Moslem  has  been 
driven  still  farther  back  toward  his  native  Asia.  It 
may  be  that,  little  by  little,  in  the  coming  years  he  will 
be  forced  out  of  Europe,  and  even  from  the  Holy 
Land.  And  a  victory  or  defeat  in  one  part  or  nation 
of  Islam  is  felt  to  its  remotest  borders.  Yet  one  re- 
members the  words  of  Raymund  Lull:  "I  see  many 
knights  going  to  the  Holy  Land  beyond  the  seas  and 
thinking  that  they  can  acquire  it  by  force  of  arms ;  but 
in  the  end  all  are  destroyed  before  they  attain  that 
which  they  think  to  have.  Whence  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  conquest  of  the  Holy  Land  ought  not  to  be  at- 
tempted except  in  the  way  in  which  Thou  and  Thine 
apostles  acquired  it,  namely,  by  love  and  prayers,  and 
the  pouring  out  of  tears  and  of  blood."  "  Missions  to 
Moslems  " — this  is  the  judgment  of  that  knight  of  the 
Moslem  mission  crusade,  Samuel  Zwemer — "  missions 
to  Moslems  are  the  only  Christian  solution  of  the  East- 
ern question,  and  of  the  Moslem  problem  everywhere. 
God  wills  it.  Let  our  rallying  cry  be :  '  Every  strong- 
hold of  Islam  for  Christ ! '  God  wills  it,  therefore  we 
must  do  it.  God  wills  it,  therefore  He  will  accom- 
plish it.  God  wills  it,  therefore  we  will  ask  Him  to 
do  it  speedily.  '  Thy  kingdom  come.  Thy  will  be 
done,'  throughout  the  Moslem  world." 


IV 

THE  PROTECTOR  OF  THE  OPPRESSED 
Bartholome  de  las  Casas 

"  They  are  slaves  who  fear  to  speak 
For  the  fallen  and  the  weak  ; 
They  are  slaves  who  will  not  choose 
Hatred,  scoffing,  and  abuse, 
Rather  than  in  silence  shrink 
From  the  truth  they  needs  must  think  ; 
They  are  slaves  who  dare  not  be 
In  the  right  with  two  or  three." 

— Lowell,  "  Stanzas  on  Freedom." 

"  Religion,  virtue,  truth,  what'er  we  call 
A  blessing — freedom  is  the  pledge  of  all." 

—Cow per,  "  Table  Talk." 

ON  the  night  of  the  third  of  March,  1493,  a  vio- 
lent storm  was  raging  in  the  north  Atlantic 
main,  rolling  long,  angry  billows  landward  to 
break  with  fury  upon  the  coasts  of  the  Spanish  penin- 
sula. In  the  midst  of  the  rain  and  the  wind  and  the 
blackness,  a  small  ship,  hardly  larger  than  a  coasting 
vessel  of  our  day,  plunged  and  rose  with  the  dark 
waters,  its  anxious  helmsman  straining  the  darkness 
for  the  reefs  and  crags  which  might  be  lying  in  wait 
for  the  wreck  of  his  good  ship  and  its  precious  freight. 
Farther  than  any  of  this  land  had  ever  yet  ventured 
westward  was  come  the  caravel  now  buffeted  by  tem- 
pests, within  sight  almost  of  the  desired  haven,  and 

230 


BARTHOLOME  DE  LAS  CASAS  231 

strange  news  it  brought — news  of  distant  shores  that 
had  been  deemed  hitherto  the  wild  phantasies  of  a 
romantic  brain.  For  this  storm-driven  ship  was  none 
other  than  the  Nifia,  bearing  homeward  the  great 
Admiral  Columbus  from  the  new  Indies  of  the 
West. 

After  toiling  all  night  through  troubled  waters,  the 
Nina  came  next  day  into  the  river  Tagus,  and  eleven 
days  later  dropped  anchor  in  the  little  harbour  of 
Palos,  whence,  with  the  Pinta  and  the  Santa  Maria, 
she  had  sailed  for  the  New  World  in  August  of  the 
preceding  year.    Three  more  voyages  Columbus  made, 
exploring  the  West  Indies  and  sighting  the  mainland 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Orinoco  and  along  the  coasts  of 
Panama  and  Honduras.     As  the  new  century  dawned, 
many  explorers  followed  where  Columbus  had  pointed 
the  way.     Hojeda,  Vespucci,   Pinzon,  Balboa,   Solis, 
Alvarado,  Cortes,  Quesada,  and  Pizarro  are  renowned 
for     conquests     of     "  unpath'd     waters,     undream'd 
shores."     The  West  Indies,  New  Spain,  the  northern 
coasts  of  South  America  were  brought  into  the  view 
of  Europe.     In  15 13  Balboa,  from  the  mountains  of 
Panama,  beheld  the  "  great  maine  sea  heretofore  un- 
known to  the  inhabitants  of  Europe,  Aphrika,  and 
Asia,"  and  later  named  by  Magellan  the  Mare  Pa- 
cificum.     Meanwhile,   Vasco   da   Gama  had   rounded 
the  southernmost  land  of  the   Dark   Continent   and 
sailed  on  to  India  of  the  Ganges.     Cabral,  following 
Da  Gama  to  Asia  with  twelve  ships,  visited  the  shores 
of  Brazil,  quite  uninfluenced  by  the  achievements  of 
the  Genoese  explorer,  but  too  late  to  gain  honour  as 
the  discoverer  of  the  New  World.     The  three  years  of 
15 19  to  1522  saw  the  world  circumnavigated  by  Ma- 
gellan's ships.     English,  French,  and  Dutch  seafarers 


232   THE  PROTECTOR  OF  THE  OPPRESSED 

were  exploring  the  eastern  coasts  of  North  America, 
while  Spanish  knights,  at  a  tremendous  cost  of  life, 
plunged  into  the  tropic  wilderness  of  the  south  and  the 
desert  solitudes  of  the  southwest,  building  the  foun- 
dations of  the  Empire  of  New  Spain. 

In  reward  for  their  services,  the  explorers  and  their 
descendants  were  given  repartimientos,  or  grants  of 
land,  with  the  right  to  employ  forced  native  labour. 
And  from  the  first  the  Indian  fared  ill  at  the  hands  of 
the  Spaniard.  Race  temperament,  the  desire  for 
quick  gains,  a  climate  that  forbade  arduous  toil  to  the 
European  and  was  enervating  in  effect,  the  great  dis- 
tance from  the  seat  of  restraining  authority,  together 
with  inherited  prejudice,  all  combined  to  make  the 
encomcndero  a  hard  and  even  cruel  master.  Though 
in  theory  the  Spanish  government  discountenanced  the 
enslavement  of  the  Indian,  in  reality  the  Spanish  ad- 
venturer, far  from  home  and  intent  upon  amassing 
wealth,  was,  regardless  of  law,  constantly  enriching 
his  plantations  and  recruiting  men  for  the  mines  or  the 
sugar  mills  from  the  smaller  islands  and  the  mainland. 
And  all  this  was  done  with  the  specious  excuse  of 
civilizing  and  Christianizing  the  Indian.  The  cry  of 
agony  went  up  to  heaven  from  these  Spanish  colonies, 
and  in  God's  own  time  there  was  raised  up  for  this 
suffering  people  a  champion  of  true  knightly  valour 
and  prowess. 

When,  on  that  August  day  of  1492,  the  Italian 
woollen  weaver's  son  sailed  out  from  Palos  harbour 
into  the  unknown  waters  of  the  sunset,  among  the  dat- 
ing men  on  shipboard  was  a  Spaniard  from  Seville, 
Antonio  de  las  Casas.  In  the  homeland  Las  Casas 
left  a  son,  then  a  lad  of  sixteen,  destined  to  go  down 
in  history  as  the  Apostle  of  the  Indies,  "  the  Lloyd 


BARTHOLOME  DE  LAS  CASAS  233 

Garrison  of  Indian  rights  in  the  New  World."  The 
younger  Las  Casas  received  his  education  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Salamanca,  at  that  time  the  chief  seat  of 
learning  in  Spain.  At  the  age  of  twenty-four  he 
joined  Columbus  on  the  great  explorer's  third  voyage 
to  the  New  World.  Four  years  later  he  was  ordained 
priest,  the  first  in  America  to  receive  such  ordination. 
After  the  reduction  of  Cuba,  Las  Casas,  with  his  friend, 
De  Renteria,  received  a  repartimiento  on  the  southern 
shore  of  the  island,  and,  though  a  priest,  devoted  him- 
self to  amassing  wealth  from  the  mines  by  means  of 
his  Indian  dependents.  Very  occasionally  he  per- 
formed the  offices  of  his  Church,  and  his  kindly  nature 
made  him  a  more  reasonable  master  than  his  neigh- 
bours, but  not  yet  were  the  eyes  of  his  understanding 
opened. 

It  was  on  the  Feast  of  Pentecost,  15 14,  that  the  man 
who  for  more  than  fifty  years  was  to  wage  a  noble 
warfare  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed  Indian  of  the  West 
Indies  and  New  Spain,  heard  the  call  to  higher  service. 
The  words  of  the  day's  lesson  came  to  him  with  pecu- 
liar illuminating  power: 

"  He  that  sacrificeth  of  a  thing  wrongfully  gotten, 
his  offering  is  ridiculous:  and  the  gifts  of  unjust  men 
are  not  accepted. 

"  The  Most  High  is  not  pleased  with  the  offerings 
of  the  wicked :  neither  is  he  pacified  for  sin  by  the 
multitude  of  sacrifices. 

"  Whoso  bringeth  an  offering  of  the  goods  of  the 
poor  doeth  as  one  that  killeth  the  son  before  his 
father's  eyes. 

"  The  bread  of  the  needy  is  their  life;  he  that  de- 
fraudeth  him  thereof  is  a  man  of  blood. 

"  He  that  taketh  away  his  neighbour's  living  slayeth 


234      THE  PROTECTOR  OF  THE  OPPRESSED 

him;  and  he  that  defraudeth  the  labourer  of  his  hire 
is  a  bloodshedder."  ^ 

With  Las  Casas  to  know  was  to  do.  Promptly  he 
gave  over  his  repartimiento,  for  if  he  would  preach 
to  others  he  must  be  free  himself  of  the  evil  system. 
His  friend  De  Renteria  sympathized  with  him  in  this 
step,  and  it  was  decided  that  Las  Casas  should  return 
to  Spain  to  lay  before  the  government  the  sufferings 
of  the  oppressed  natives. 

Arrived  in  the  homeland,  Las  Casas  found  his  way 
beset  with  difficulties.  The  Bishop  of  Burgos  and 
Lope  de  Conchillos,  at  this  time  the  chief  councillors 
in  West  Indian  affairs,  both  held  Indians  "  in  reparti- 
miento." Nevertheless,  Ferdinand  gave  audience  to 
Las  Casas  and  promised  to  do  what  he  could  toward 
remedying  conditions.  Unfortunately,  the  Spanish 
sovereign  did  not  live  to  carry  out  his  promises,  leav- 
ing as  successor  a  boy  of  sixteen.-  At  the  death  of 
Ferdinand  in  January,  1516,  Las  Casas  carried  his 
plea  to  the  newly-appointed  regent.  Cardinal  Ximenes, 
who  was  moved  by  the  report  of  these  cruelties  and 
lent  his  influence  to  better  legislation  and  a  more  strin- 
gent enforcement  of  law.  For  the  latter  purpose 
he  chose  Jeronimite  monks  to  accompany  Las  Casas 
to  the  West  Indies.  Perhaps  the  Cardinal  did  not 
know  his  men,  perhaps  he  did  not  understand  how 
universal  and  intense  would  be  the  opposition,  and 
how  necessary  it  was  that  this  mission  should  be 
placed  in  the  hands  of  persons  of  unbending  fidelity. 
Before  the  Fathers  left  Spain,  their  minds  had  been 
poisoned  by  agents  from  the  colonies  so  that  they  con- 

*  From  the  Apocrypha,  Ecclesiasticus  34  ;  18-22. 
2  Charles  I  of  Spain.     In  1519  elected  Emperor  under  title  of 
Charles  V. 


BARTHOLOME  DE  LAS  CASAS  225 

trived  to  sail  on  another  vessel  from  that  on  which 
Las  Casas  returned  to  America.  After  their  arrival 
they  showed  great  repugnance  to  an  active  prosecution 
of  the  Spanish  officials  and  the  suppression  of  the  re- 
partimiento  system,  although  endeavouring  to  make 
the  lot  of  the  Indian  easier  by  giving  them  to  those 
whom  they  deemed  merciful  masters. 

No  wonder  that  Las  Casas  was  sorely  disappointed 
at  the  outcome  of  his  first  visit  to  Spain.  He  had 
secured  the  intervention  of  the  most  influential  figure 
in  the  Spanish  Government — a  temporal  and  ecclesi- 
astical prince — and  had  obtained  legislation  and  orders 
sufficient  to  revolutionize  the  existing  situation  in  the 
West  Indies.  But  Ximenes  was  in  Spain,  and  in  all 
the  New  World  there  was  no  one  to  enforce  the  com- 
mands which  had  been  issued.  The  Jeronimite 
Fathers  were  unwilling  and  Las  Casas  unable  to  com- 
pel those  in  authority  to  give  up  their  Indians  and 
enforce  protective  legislation.  Las  Casas  determined 
to  return  to  Spain. 

There  was  reason.  Las  Casas  found,  for  the  silence 
of  the  home  government.  His  letters  had  not  reached 
Ximenes.  This  may  be  suggestive  to  those  who  think 
the  good  Clerigo  overzealous  in  his  championship  of 
the  Indian.  Perhaps  the  Spaniard  of  the  West  Indies 
did  not  care  to  have  such  incidents  as  the  following 
brought  to  the  attention  of  those  in  authority  in  Spain. 
The  aiidiencia  or  court  of  San  Domingo  commissioned 
one  Juan  Bono  to  procure  Indian  labourers.  Land- 
ing on  the  island  of  Trinidad,  Bono  told  the  natives 
that  he  was  their  friend  and  would  remain  with  them. 
At  his  suggestion  they  erected  a  large  house  so  con- 
structed that  those  within  could  not  be  seen  from  the 
outside.     When  the  house  was  completed,  Bono  in- 


236   THE  PROTECTOR  OF  THE  OPPRESSED 

vited  /the  Indians  to  enter,  possibly  implying  a  feast 
or  some  further  work  on  the  interior.  The  building 
being  crowded,  the  Spanish  soldiers  drew  swords  and 
closed  the  doors.  Many,  attempting  to  escape,  were 
hewn  down,  the  rest  were  bound  and  conveyed  to 
Espagnola.  To  complete  this  scene  of  horrors,  Bono 
set  fire  to  a  cabin  in  which  some  of  the  Indians  had 
taken  refuge — men,  women,  and  children  perishing 
together  in  the  flames. 

Hardly  had  Las  Casas  reached  Spain  when  the  death 
of  Cardinal  Ximenes  occurred.  Undismayed  by  this 
loss,  the  stalwart  apostle  of  Indian  rights  succeeded 
in  gaining  the  ear  of  the  new  Chancellor,  and  a  col- 
onization scheme  was  agreed  upon,  which  should  re- 
move the  necessity  of  Indian  slave  labour.  But  Las 
Casas  had  not  reckoned  with  the  Bishop  of  Burgos. 
Temporarily  set  aside,  the  death  of  Ximenes  and  later 
of  the  Grand  Chancellor  returned  the  subtle  prelate 
to  power.  It  was  largely  due  to  his  influence  that 
Las  Casas  was  unable  to  send  out  the  colonists  whom 
he  desired,  and  whom  he  had  at  first  every  prospect 
of  recruiting  from  the  better  class  of  Spanish  farmers. 
At  the  instigation  of  Fonseca,^  and  unknown  to  the 
Clerigo,  the  lieutenant  of  Las  Casas  gathered  a  com- 
pany of  undesirable  emigrants 

"  where  the  sun  of  Andalusia  shines 
On  his  own  olive-groves  and  vines  " 

and  sent  these  to  the  New  World  to  turn  adventurers 
and  render  matters  even  worse  than  before. 

One  article  of  the  recommendations,  and  their  only 
evil  feature,  has,  perhaps,  been  made  too  much  of  in 
*  The  Bishop  of  Burgos. 


BARTHOLOME  DE  LAS  CASAS         237 

history.  I  mean  the  clause  giving  permission  to  out- 
going colonists  to  take  with  them  a  certain  number 
of  negro  slaves.  "  There  is,"  says  Dr.  Warneck,  "  no 
foundation  for  the  legend  that  the  African  slave  trade 
was  introduced  by  the  Dominican,  Bartolome  de  las 
Casas — the  noblest  figure  of  that  time  among  the 
Spaniards  of  the  West  Indies.  It  was  sympathy  with 
the  perishing  Indians  that  led  him  to  give  this  advice, 
and  at  a  later  time  he  bitterly  regretted  it  as  the  great- 
est mistake  of  his  life.^  But  Las  Casas  certainly  did 
not  introduce  slavery.  Long  before  his  time  black 
slaves  were  no  unfamiliar  article  of  trade.  It  is  to 
the  Portuguese  that  the  shame  belongs  of  having  first 
brought  the  '  black  wares  '  into  the  market.  As  far 
back  as  1442  they  brought  slaves  to  Lisbon  from  the 
West  Coast  of  Africa,  and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church 
made  it  lawful." 

When  his  general  scheme  for  substituting  Spanish 
labour  for  the  existing  repartimiento  system  failed, 
Las  Casas  endeavoured  to  procure  the  grant  of  a  dis- 
trict of  land  on  the  mainland  of  South  America  under  a 
charter  forever  forbidding  the  repartimiento  system. 
He  agreed  to  obtain  fifty  men  who  should  subscribe 
two  hundred  ducats  each  and  afterward  receive  one- 
twelfth  of  the  king's  revenue  from  the  province.  The 
whole  scheme  was  ridiculed  by  the  Bishop  of  Burgos, 
who,  however,  was  in  the  end  obliged  to  submit  and 

1  He  wrote,  "  This  advice  that  license  should  be  given  to  bring 
negro  slaves  to  these  lands,  the  Clerigo  Casas  first  gave,  not  con- 
sidering the  injustice  with  which  the  Portuguese  take  them,  and 
make  them  slaves,  which  advice,  after  he  had  apprehended  the 
nature  of  the  thing,  he  would  not  have  given  for  all  he  had  in 
the  world.  For  he  always  held  that  they  had  been  made  slaves 
unjustly  and  tyrannically  :  for  the  same  reason  holds  good  of 
them  as  of  the  Indians." 


238      THE  PROTECTOR  OF  THE  OPPRESSED 

aid  in  preparations  for  the  colony.  So  Las  Casas  at 
last  had  his  way,  and  returned  rejoicing  to  the  West 
Indies,  where,  he  said,  he  had  left  "  the  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  suffering  stripes,  and  ajfflictions,  and  cruci- 
fixion, not  once,  but  thousands  of  times  at  the  hands 
of  the  Spaniards,  who  destroyed  and  desolated  the 
Indian  nations." 

The  good  Clerigo  arrived  in  America  only  to  find 
an  expedition  setting  out  for  the  Pearl  Coast  to  avenge 
the  destruction  of  the  Franciscan  and  Dominican  mon- 
asteries at  Cumana  and  Santa  Fe  de  Chiribichi.  Let 
us  add  that  the  massacre  had  been  occasioned  by  the 
cruelties  of  a  pearl-fisher,  Ojeda,  who  had  entrapped 
Indians  for  the  slave  trade.  Las  Casas  would  have 
wished  to  proceed  at  once  to  his  province  of  Cumana 
to  put  an  end  to  the  revenge  of  the  fleet,  but  the 
Spanish  colonists,  who  delighted  in  opposing  the 
Clerigo  on  every  occasion,  saw  to  it  that  no  ship  was 
forthcoming  for  the  voyage.  Las  Casas,  not  to  be 
thus  put  off,  when  news  came  of  the  cruelties  of 
Ocampo's  expedition,  "  went  raging  and  with  terrible 
sternness  bore  witness  against  this  thing  before  the 
aiidiencia."  ^ 

The  righteous  wrath  of  the  man  awed  even  the 
crafty  members  of  the  andiencia,  who  were  glad  to 
come  to  terms  with  the  Clerigo,  entering  into  a  sort 
of  partnership  with  him  in  the  development  of  his 
province  of  Cumana,  and  furnishing  vessels  for  his 
transport  thither.  But  this  scheme  also  was  doomed 
to  failure.  Las  Casas  could  not  retain  his  men,  the 
ships  sailed  back  to  San  Domingo,  and  the  pearl-fishers 
of  the  islands  made  constant  predatory  visits  to  the 
coast,  embittering  the  already  prejudiced  natives. 
1  Las  Casas'  own  words. 


BARTHOLOME  DE  LAS  CASAS         239 

Finally  Las  Casas,  against  his  better  judgment,  re- 
turned to  San  Domingo  to  obtain  redress  in  the 
audicncia.  Hardly  was  he  gone  when  the  Indians  fell 
upon  the  mission,  from  which  only  a  few  escaped 
through  many  dangers  to  ships  at  Araya,  across  the 
bay. 

One  would  say  that  the  shield  was  withdrawn,  that 
the  great  Arm  of  Divine  Protection  no  longer  upheld. 
To  Las  Casas  it  may  have  seemed  that  the  labours  of 
these  seven  years  for  the  oppressed  Indian  had  been 
unavailing,  that  he  had  taken  upon  himself  too  great 
a  battle.  For  eight  years  thereafter  he  is  lost  to  the 
world  in  the  Dominican  monastery  at  San  Domingo. 
After  a  little  he  formally  joined  the  Order,  and  de- 
voted himself  to  writing.  That  the  old  zeal  was  not 
gone,  however,  is  suggested  by  the  fact  that  Las  Casas 
was  not  allowed  to  preach  in  all  that  time,  probably 
because  of  the  desire  of  the  brethren  to  preserve 
friendly  relations  with  the  townspeople,  who  might 
be  alienated  by  the  searching  denunciations  of  the 
warrior-monk. 

When  Las  Casas  again  enters  the  arena  against  the 
oppressor  of  the  Indians,  the  scene  of  conflict  is  trans- 
ferred to  New  Spain,  whither  he  had  accompanied  the 
Dominican,  Francisco  de  San  Miguel.  Some  authori- 
ties tell  us  that  he  returned  to  Spain  in  1530,  that  while 
there  he  obtained  a  royal  decree  forbidding  Pizarro  to 
enslave  the  Indians  of  Peru,  and  that  he  afterward 
carried  the  orders  in  person  to  the  Land  of  the  Inca. 
Whether  or  not  this  journey  was  undertaken,  certain 
it  is  that,  after  establishing  himself  in  a  neglected 
monastery  at  Santiago  de  Guatemala,  he  circulated  a 
treatise,  Dc  itnico  vocationis  inodo,  in  which  he 
showed  "  first,  that  men  were  to  be  brought  to  Chris- 


24.0      THE  PROTECTOR  OF  THE  OPPRESSED 

tianity  by  persuasion;  and  second,  that  without  special 
injury  received  on  the  part  of  the  Christians,  it  was 
not  lawful  for  them  to  carry  on  war  against  infi- 
dels." The  Spanish  encomenderos  retorted,  "  Try 
it;  prove  that  you  can  bring  the  Indians  to  an  accept- 
ance of  our  faith  by  the  mere  power  of  words."  And 
Las  Casas  did  try  it.  Now,  for  the  first  time,  this 
big-hearted  man,  who  had  been  far  too  busy  seeking 
to  obtain  conditions  under  which  the  native  races  might 
believe  in  the  Christianity  taught  them  to  take  active 
part  in  their  evangelization,  turned  his  thought  to  the 
most  intractable  of  the  tribes  of  Central  America. 
The  home  of  this  people  was  known  to  the  Spaniards 
as  "  Tierra  de  Guerra,"  the  "  Land  of  War."  For  the 
conversion  and  peaceful  subjugation  of  this  land  Las 
Casas  entered  into  compact  with  the  governor  of 
Guatemala.  It  was  agreed  that  if  Tuzulutlan  was 
brought  to  acknowledge  the  sovereignty  of  Spain  and 
to  pay  tribute  to  His  Majesty,  Charles  the  Fifth,  the 
annexed  territory  should  not  be  given  in  encomienda 
to  any  Spanish  subject. 

The  manner  of  introducing  the  gospel  into  Tuzu- 
lutlan was  unique.  It  would  not  do,  of  course,  for 
a  Spaniard  to  venture  unarmed  into  this  hostile  coun- 
try. Accordingly,  a  poem  giving  expression  to  the 
belief  of  the  Church  was  composed  in  the  language  of 
the  Indians  of  the  province,  and  carefully  taught  to 
Indian  traders  who  were  in  the  habit  of  penetrating 
the  Land  of  War  with  Spanish  goods. 

Of  all  the  strange  scenes  in  the  history  of  Spanish 
colonization  in  America,  none  is,  perhaps,  more  pic- 
turesque than  the  coming  of  these  Indian  merchants 
with  their  message  of  song.  The  cases  of  foreign 
novelties  have  been  closed  and  set  aside,  the  short  twi- 


BARTHOLOME  DE  LAS  CASAS  241 

light  is  over,  and  a  tropical  night  is  closing  down  upon 
the  tents  of  the  traders  and  the  palace  of  the  Cacique 
close  by.  The  crowd  of  curious  folk  still  lingers  and 
the  traders,  calling  for  the  "  teplanastle  "  (a  native 
musical  instrument),  and  producing  timbrel  and  bells, 
begin  to  chant  the  verses  prepared  by  the  Dominican 
monks.  For  seven  days  this  service  of  song  is  re- 
peated, while,  in  response  to  the  eager  questions  of 
their  listeners,  the  Indian  merchants  tell  them  of  the 
Fathers  from  whom  they  have  learned  these  new 
truths. 

The  traders  returned  to  Santiago  accompanied  by 
the  Cacique's  brother,  who  was  sent  to  watch  the  life 
of  the  monks,  and  if  convinced  of  their  sincerity,  to 
invite  some  of  the  "  padres  "  to  come  as  teachers  to 
Tuzulutlan.  Needless  to  say,  the  Indian  prince  could 
discover  no  fault  at  all  in  the  establishment  over 
which  Las  Casas  ruled,  and  Luis  Cancer  returned  with 
the  prince  to  the  Land  of  War,  his  stay  among  this 
wild  folk  resulting  in  the  conversion  first  of  the 
Cacique  and  then  of  his  people.  Later  Las  Casas  him- 
self visited  Tuzulutlan  and  gathered  large  numbers  of 
the  Indians  out  of  their  nomadic  state  into  a  new  town, 
Rabinal.  So  the  good  Clerigo  proved  that  even  the 
most  hostile  of  the  Indian  nations  was  capable  of 
receiving  Christianity  and  willing  to  accept  it  through 
the  peaceful  preaching  of  the  monks. 

Twenty-four  years  had  now  passed  since  the  good 
Clerigo  first  espoused  the  cause  of  the  Indian  and, 
though  thwarted  at  nearly  every  point,  he  had  yet 
made  a  vast  impression  for  good  upon  the  administra- 
tion by  his  unceasing  and  strenuous  advocacy  of  mercy 
and  justice.  In  1539,  Las  Casas  attended  a  chapter 
of  the  Dominican  Order  in  the  City  of  Mexico  and, 


242   THE  PROTECTOR  OF  THE  OPPRESSED 

with  Luis  Cancer,  sailed  for  Spain,  where  he  told  the 
story  of  the  conversion  of  the  Land  of  War. 

During  this  visit  to  the  homeland,  Las  Casas  pre- 
pared "  The  Destruction  of  the  Indies,"  a  startling 
account  of  conditions  in  the  New  World  by  an  eye- 
witness. When  permission  was  obtained  for  its  pub- 
lication twelve  years  later,  the  book  aroused  interest 
throughout  Europe,  and  was  translated  into  several 
languages.  We  must  remember,  too,  that  this  pas- 
sionate appeal  for  recognition  of  the  rights  of  a  de- 
spised people  was  being  written  by  a  loyal  adherent 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  at  a  time  when  Luther 
and  the  Emperor  were  vainly  striving  to  come  to- 
gether in  compromise.  What  a  grand  meeting  these 
two  reformers  must  have  had  long  ago — heroes  who 
strove,  the  one  for  freedom  of  souls,  the  other  for 
the  freedom  of  a  race. 

Las  Casas  returned  to  Mexico  Bishop  of  Chiapa. 
Not  that  he  had  desired  episcopal  honour.  Rather  he 
had  tried  to  avoid  narrowing  his  labours  to  a  single 
province — he  who  was  father  to  the  oppressed  in  all 
the  New  World.  But  Chiapa  was  remote  from  the 
seat  of  authority  and  easily  able  to  set  aside  the  new 
restrictions,  and  some  one  was  needed  to  labour  for 
their  enforcement.     This  Las  Casas  undertook  to  do. 

"  The  episcopal  dignity  made  no  change  in  the  ways 
or  manners  of  Las  Casas,"  Sir  Arthur  Helps  has  writ- 
ten.^ "  In  all  respects  his  household  was  maintained 
in  the  simplest  manner.  He  had  lost  all  his  books, 
which  had  been  on  board  a  vessel  that  had  sunk  in 
Campeachy  Bay.  This  was  a  great  grief  to  the  good 
bishop,  who,  amidst  all  his  labours,  was  a  diligent  stu- 
dent. .  .  .  The  members  of  his  household  could 
iSir  Arthur  Helps,  "  Life  of  Las  Casas." 


BARTHOLOME  DE  LAS  CASAS  243 

often  hear  him  sighing  and  groaning  in  his  own  room 
at  night.  His  grief  used  to  reach  its  height  when  some 
poor  Indian  woman  would  come  to  him,  and,  throwing 
herself  at  his  feet,  exclaim  with  tears,  '  My  father, 
great  lord,  I  am  free.  Look  at  me;  I  have  no  mark 
of  the  brand  on  my  face;  and  yet  I  have  been  sold  for 
a  slave.    Defend  me,  you,  who  are  our  father.'  " 

Finally  Las  Casas  resolved  to  refuse  absolution  to 
those  of  his  diocese  holding  slaves.  The  result  was 
persecution  of  a  vexing  and  illusive  sort.  Even  the 
children  were  taught  to  ridicule  him  in  the  streets,  and 
his  own  dean  would  not  obey  his  orders.  But  Las 
Casas  was  too  sensible  a  man  to  be  long  cast  down  over 
action  which  showed  only  a  moral  lack  on  the  part  of 
his  persecutors.  Courteous  by  nature,  when  a  great 
wrong  cried  aloud  for  redress,  he  went  into  battle  with 
his  whole  soul.  The  pity  of  it  is  that  there  were  not 
more  like  Las  Casas  in  Spanish  America. 

To  obtain  justice  the  Bishop  now  journeyed  to  Hon- 
duras, where  the  Auditors  of  the  Confines  received 
him  with  impatience.  By  persistent  efforts,  neverthe- 
less, he  was  able  to  secure  promise  that  an  Auditor 
should  be  sent  to  Ciudad  Real,  the  seat  of  his  bishopric. 

The  inhabitants  of  Ciudad  Real,  desperate  at  the 
thought  of  enforced  justice,  resolved  upon  a  bold 
measure.  Armed  Indians  were  set  to  guard  the  ap- 
proach to  the  city  and  prevent  the  Bishop  from  enter- 
ing until  he  should  promise  to  follow  the  moderate 
course  of  the  other  bishops  of  New  Spain.  But  the 
Indian  sentinels,  when  they  saw  Las  Casas  approach- 
ing, instead  of  opposing  his  advance,  fell  at  his  feet 
begging  for  his  forgiveness.  The  Bishop,  knowing 
that  they  would  be  punished  for  disobedience,  bound 
them  and  made  them  follow  as  prisoners.     Even  this 


M4!      THE  PROTECTOR  OF  THE  OPPRESSED 

act  was  wilfully  misread,  so  angry  were  the  citizens 
at  the  failure  of  their  scheme.  A  riot  ensued,  filling 
the  street  in  front  of  the  Dominican  monastery  with  a 
turbulent  throng.  "  You  see  here  the  way  of  the 
world,"  one  man  taunted.  "  He  is  the  saviour  of  the 
Indians,  and  look,  he  it  is  who  binds  them.  Yet  this 
same  man  will  send  memorials  against  us  to  Spain, 
declaring  we  maltreat  them."  Within  a  few  hours, 
with  true  Latin  impulsiveness,  the  spirit  of  the  crowd 
had  changed,  men  vying  with  one  another  in  doing 
honour  to  the  dauntless  bishop. 

Still  Las  Casas  was  not  able  to  accomplish  what  he 
desired.  A  rebellion  was  on  in  Peru;  the  old  preju- 
dices against  the  Bishop  were  far  from  dead;  the  evil 
was  deep-rooted,  and,  to  crown  all,  the  Emperor 
yielded  and  revoked  the  New  Laws.  Las  Casas  left 
Mexico  for  good,  thinking  that  he  could  accomplish 
more  if  he  were  near  the  seat  of  authority.  This  was 
in  1547.  Nineteen  years  later  he  died  at  Madrid, 
having  spent  the  intervening  period  in  combating  the 
arguments  of  Sepulveda  for  the  employment  of  force 
in  the  "  conversion  "  of  the  Indians,  and  in  obtaining 
from  Philip  II  promise  that  encomiendas  reverting  to 
the  Crown  should  not  be  again  sold — a  splendid  vic- 
tory for  his  cause.  When  death  came,  he  was  labour- 
ing for  the  re-establishment  of  a  suppressed  court  of 
justice  in  Guatemala.  For  more  than  fifty  years  he 
had  striven  "  to  prove  the  capacity  of  the  Indians  for 
becoming  Christians  and  to  obtain  mitigation  of  the 
cruel  treatment  to  which  they  were  exposed."  ^  And 
the  Master  said,  "  Inasmuch  as  ye  did  it  unto  one  of 
these  my  brethren,  even  these  least,  ye  did  it  unto  me." 
^Wilhelm  Moeller,  "  History  of  the  Christian  Church." 


V 

FOR  THE  GREATER  GLORY  OF  GOD 

Jesuit  Labourers 

"  And  slowly  learns  the  world  the  truth, 

That  holy  life  is  more  than  rite, 
And  spirit  more  than  letter." 

—  Whittier. 
"  Sometime  will  the  fellow  soldiers  know  one  another  ;  some 
day  shall  the  long  muster  roll  be  called.     Then  will  the  Captain 
of  our  salvation  gather  all  his  children  round  Him." 

THE  time  is  the  early  morning  of  the  Feast  of 
the  Assumption,  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1534; 
the  place,  a  little  church  on  the  heights  of 
Montmartre,  the  northern  suburb  of  Paris.  Seven 
men — a  Navarrese,  a  Savoyard,  a  Castilian,  a  Toledan, 
a  Portuguese,  a  Valentian,  and  a  Basque — are  gath- 
ered in  the  shadows  of  the  gloomy  crypt  with  the  de- 
termined appearance  of  men  about  to  seal  a  great  de- 
cision. Mass  over  and  the  Communion  administered, 
one  of  the  group,  a  man  of  middle  height,  high  fore- 
head, and  piercing  grey  eyes,  steps  forward  to  take 
upon  himself  with  much  earnestness  the  vow  of 
spiritual  knighthood,  promising  to  devote  his  life 
henceforth  to  Mary  and  her  Son,  to  the  Holy  Catholic 
Church,  and  to  the  Pope.  It  is  the  Basque,  Ignatius 
of  Loyola.  In  turn,  each  of  his  companions  binds 
himself  with  the  same  solemn  vow.     Then,  under  the 

245 


246     FOR  THE  GREATER  GLORY  OF  GOD 

shadows  of  the  low  vaulting,  the  worshippers  kneel  in 
silent  devotion  until  the  day  has  worn  away  to  even- 
tide. Just  as  they  are  leaving  the  church,  Loyola 
writes  upon  the  altar  the  future  motto  of  the  Order, 
I.  H.  S.  (Jesus  Hominum  Salvator),  and  the  Society 
of  Jesus  has  come  into  being/ 

Let  us  recall  the  condition  of  that  European  world 
in  which  these  men  were  destined  later  to  become  so 
prominent.  It  was  now  fifteen  years  since  Martin 
Luther  had  opened  the  long  struggle  with  Rome  by 
the  posting  of  the  Wittenberg  Theses,  and  thirteen 
since  at  Worms  he  had  defied  Church  and  Emperor. 
In  the  January  preceding  the  scene  described  above, 
the  decrees  of  the  Reichskammergericht  requiring  the 
restoration  of  church  property  and  of  the  authority  of 
the  bishops  had  been  formally  set  aside  by  the  Protes- 
tant princes  of  Germany.  In  England,  "  the  Defender 
of  the  Faith,"  the  infamous  Henry  the  Eighth,  was 
soon  to  open  the  way  for  the  Protestant  faith  by  as- 
suming the  temporal  jurisdiction  of  the  Pope  in  Eng- 
land and  declaring  himself  supreme  head  of  the  Eng- 
lish Church.  In  Sweden,  Gustavus  Vasa  had  also, 
for  political  reasons,  broken  with  Rome,  and  had  begun 
the  dissolution  of  the  monasteries.  In  1526  appeared 
a  Swedish  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  and  five 
years  later  the  king  raised  a  Protestant  to  the  primacy 
of  Sweden,  In  Denmark,  the  influence  of  the  Refor- 
mation was  steadily  increasing  and  another  year  was 
to  see  the  Lutheran  king,  Christian  the  Second,  upon 
the  Danish-Norwegian  throne.  The  Netherlands,  to 
be  sure,  were  as  yet  chained  by  the  might  of  the  Im- 
perial Charles,  but  there  were  many  of  the  new  way 

*  The  formal  organization  belongs  to  a  later  time.    As  yet  they 
called  themselves  Companions  of  Jesus. 


JESUIT  LABOURERS  247 

among  the  descendants  of  the  freedom-loving  Frisians. 
Even  in  a  Latin  country  like  France,  and  under  the 
absolutism  of  Francis  the  First,  great  numbers  were 
breaking  away  from  long  revered  doctrines.  So  bold 
had  these  become  that,  in  October  of  this  same  year 
of  1534,  they  uttered  a  public  protest  against  the  mass 
in  placards,  which  were  posted  at  all  the  street-corners 
and  even  affixed  to  the  door  of  the  king's  apartments 
at  Amboise. 

It  was  apparent,  therefore,  that  if  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic Church  were  to  retain  anything  like  its  former 
prestige,  there  must  be  quick  and  decisive  action. 
Jesuitism,  the  great  force  of  this  Counter- Re  forma- 
tion, came  to  effect  what  the  dying  monastic  orders 
could  not  hope  to  accomplish. 

Ignatius  of  Loyola,  educated  at  the  court  of  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella,  had  been  forced  to  renounce  his 
chosen  military  career  through  injuries  received  at  the 
defence  of  Pampeluna,  and,  turning  in  his  unaccus- 
tomed idleness  to  more  serious  thoughts,  became  one 
of  the  most  zealous  and  fanatical  of  Spanish  Catholics. 
After  some  years,  Loyola  found  himself  pursuing  a 
much-needed  course  of  study  in  Paris,  and  here  he 
gradually  won  the  friendship  and  then  the  sympathy 
of  the  men  who  were  to  become  his  future  co- 
workers. 

Prominent  among  these  was  the  Navarrese,  Fran- 
cisco de  Xavier.  While  Loyola  the  youth  was  living 
in  the  royal  household  of  Spain,  the  future  "  Apostle 
of  the  Indies  "  was  yet  a  small  lad  in  his  mother's 
castle  near  Sanguesa,  with  the  stir  of  the  new  ideas 
and  the  wider  horizons  which  marked  the  beginning  of 
the  sixteenth  century  still  far  away  from  the  secluded 
life  under  the  towering  mountain  wall  of  the  Pyre- 


248     FOR  THE  GREATER  GLORY  OF  GOD 

nees.*  But  with  the  years  came  changes.  Dr.  Juan 
de  Jassu,  Xavier's  father,  died  in  15 15,  and  though 
his  widow  still  lived  on  in  her  ancestral  fortress,  little 
Navarre  was  full  of  war  and  rumours  of  war.  That 
part  of  the  province  south  of  the  Pyrenees  soon  be- 
came Spanish  territory,  and  for  purposes  of  pacifica- 
tion Cardinal  Ximenes  ordered  all  its  fortresses  razed. 
A  boy  of  ten,  Francis  saw  the  commanding  towers  of 
his  home  destroyed  under  the  direction  of  the  Cardi- 
nal's men,^  only  the  family  apartments  being  left  in- 
tact. When  Francis  was  nineteen,  he  went  up  to 
Paris  for  study,  and  a  few  years  later  received  a  lec- 
tureship in  philosophy  at  the  College  de  Beauvais. 

Three  years  after  the  meeting  on  Montmartre, 
Loyola  and  his  companions  were  once  more  together, 
this  time  in  Venice.  The  first  object  of  their  common 
vows  had  been  missionary  labour  among  the  Turks, 
and  in  this  Adriatic  seaport  they  hoped  to  find  passage 
for  the  East.  Meanwhile  they  went  from  hospital  to 
hospital,  caring  for  the  sick  and,  above  all,  for  the 
leprous.  In  Venice,  also,  and  later  in  other  Italian 
cities,  Loyola  preached  to  the  crowds  which  he  gath- 
ered about  him  in  the  streets,  but  oh,  how  different  a 
message  from  the  simple,  health-giving  gospel  given 
the  common  people  in  the  life  and  words  of  the 
Assisan  saint. 

Hindrances  which  prevented  the  little  company  of 
men  calling  themselves  the  Companions  of  Jesus  from 
departing  for  the  Holy  Land  led  Loyola  and  two 
companions  to  Rome  to  offer  themselves  in  service  to 
the  Pope.  After  much  opposition,  the  papal  bull,  au- 
thorizing the  new  society,  was  issued  Septemiber  27, 

iXavier  was  born  April  7,  1506. 

2  T.  M.  Cros,  "  St.  Frangois  de  Xavier,  sa  vie  et  ses  lettres." 


JESUIT  LABOURERS  249 

1540.  The  year  following  Its  definite  organization, 
the  Society  elected  Loyola,  General.  He  chose  to  scat- 
ter his  flock  in  many  countries,  so  to  weave  a  subtle 
network  of  influence  throughout  the  weakening  boun- 
daries of  Pontifical  dominions,  and  in  as  yet  uncon- 
quered  lands,  where  the  Black  Cloaks  might  add  large 
spheres  of  power  to  the  tottering  Catholic  sovereignty. 
To  England  and  Germany,  to  France  and  Spain  and 
Portugal,  the  General  sent  his  obedient  servants  by 
one  and  another  means  to  build  a  strong  foundation 
for  future  growth.  Of  the  original  thirteen  members, 
Xavier  alone  was  commissioned  for  service  in  the 
non-Christian  world. 

In  less  than  half  a  century's  space,  India  had  ad- 
vanced from  the  distant  and  misty  outlines  of  a  land 
known  to  the  Europeans  only  through  the  caravan 
trader  and  the  occasional  and  credulous  traveller, 
into  the  clear  light  of  reality,  and  already  the  Portu- 
guese flag  flaunted  its  royal  coat-of-arms  above  many 
an  Oriental  port  which  had  opened  its  long-sealed  gates 
to  the  sailor  from  beyond  the  seas.  While  Spanish 
galleons  bore  homeward  the  wealth  of  the  Americas, 
the  subjects  of  King  John  loaded  their  high-built  mer- 
chantmen at  Indian  and  Japanese  ports  with  beautiful 
gems  and  delicate  tissues  and  aromatics  and  dye-woods 
and  costly  perfumes.  The  capital  of  Portugal's 
Asiatic  possessions  was  the  important  emporium  of 
Goa,  on  the  Malabar  coast  of  India,  a  starting-point  of 
caravan  routes  in  the  earlier  days  and  a  place  of  resi- 
dence for  native  princes.  The  Portuguese  made  of  it 
an  almost  royal  city,  of  which  it  could  be  said,  "  Who- 
ever has  seen  Goa  need  not  see  Lisbon." 

In  this  Oriental  port,  astir  with  commercial  life, 
Francisco  de  Xavier  arrived  on  the  sixth  of  May, 


250     FOR  THE  GREATER  GLORY  OF  GOD 

1542,  after  a  year  and  a  month  at  sea.  He  was  pro- 
vided with  credentials  appointing  him  Papal  nuncio 
for  India,  and  had  behind  him  the  authority  of  King 
John,  who  had  asked  Xavier's  services  of  Loyola. 

For  five  months  Xavier  remained  at  Goa,  visiting 
the  hospitals  and  bringing  back  to  a  more  devout  faith 
and  a  purer  life  many  of  the  Europeans  who  in  a  for- 
eign land  had  thrown  off  the  shackles  of  religion  and 
morality.  With  the  native  inhabitants  of  the  country 
the  work  was  more  difficult,  for,  unfortunately,  Xavier 
had  not  deemed  it  worth  his  while  to  master  the  strange 
tongue  of  the  dusky  folk  to  whom  he  had  been  sent. 
With  the  aid  of  assistants,  he  succeeded  in  rendering 
into  the  vernacular  the  several  forms  of  prayer  he  con- 
sidered necessary  for  the  salvation  of  his  converts, 
and  then,  in  October  of  1542,  set  out  southward. 
Through  the  villages  of  the  Pearl  Coast  he  journeyed 
toward  Cochin,  and  even  as  far  as  Cape  Comorin, 
ringing  a  bell  to  attract  hearers,  and  when  he  had 
gathered  a  throng,  speaking  to  them  in  a  mixed  tongue. 
At  the  close  of  his  talk  he  presented  rosaries  to  all 
who  would  kiss  the  blessed  crucifix,  and  then  invited 
the  children  to  come  to  him  for  instruction  in  the 
Creed,  the  Pater  Noster,  the  Confession,  and  the  An- 
gelic Salutation. 

In  1544  he  wrote,  "  So  many  people  asked  me  to 
go  to  their  houses  to  recite  prayers  over  the  sick,  and 
the  sick  themselves  came  to  me  in  such  numbers  that, 
without  other  labour,  the  recitation  of  these  offices 
only  would  have  occupied  all  my  time,  so  that,  to  sat- 
isfy the  devotion  of  those  who  called  me  to  them  or 
who  came  to  me,  and  furthermore  to  teach  the  chil- 
dren, baptize,  translate  prayers,  answer  endless  ques- 
tions, and  bury  the  dead,  became  a  burdensome  work. 


JESUIT  LABOURERS  251 

...  In  order  that  all  might  be  satisfied,  I  employed 
the  following  expedient :  I  gave  the  children  who  knew 
the  prayers  charge  of  visiting  the  houses  of  the  sick; 
there  they  gathered  the  members  of  the  family  and 
the  neighbours;  they  all  repeated  the  Credo  several 
times,  telling  the  sick  person  to  believe  and  he  would 
be  healed ;  then  came  other  prayers.  All  the  sick  were 
visited  in  this  way,  and  furthermore  the  Credo,  the 
commandments,  and  the  prayers  were  taught  in  the 
houses  and  on  the  squares."  '  The  quotation  hardly 
needs  comment. 

The  sacraments,  an  assent  to  the  teachings  of  the 
Church,  and  penances — these  would  seem  to  have  been 
the  essentials  to  salvation  in  Catholic  thought.  No 
wonder,  then,  that,  through  gifts,  the  pomp  of  ritual, 
and  a  military  authority  which  destroyed  the  heathen 
idols  and  gave  over  to  him  for  Christian  service  the 
temples  in  which  they  had  been  worshipped,  he  was 
able  to  make  thousands  of  converts,  sometimes  bap- 
tizing whole  villages  in  a  day.  Before  he  left  Goa  in 
1549,  he  had  laboured  in  all  the  districts  under  Portu- 
guese control  in  India  and  the  adjacent  islands,  and 
had  established  several  schools.  Into  these  last  native 
youth  of  high  birth  were  forced,  and  not  only  so,  but 
for  those  natives  who  rebelled  against  such  wholesale 
conversion  of  their  brethren,  and  who  aided  the  pagan 
priests  in  seeking  a  revival  of  the  old  faith,  Xavier 
desired  to  institute  a  miniature  Inquisition  at  Goa. 
He  had  with  him  now  a  large  number  of  helpers,  who 
had  been  sent  out  at  his  request,  and  to  these  he  left 
the  continuance  of  the  work  in  India,  sailing  for  Japan 
seven  years  after  his  first  landing  at  Goa. 

Two  reasons  led  Xavier  to  Japan :  first,  the  request 
iCros,  "  St.  Frangois  de  Xavier,  sa  vie  et  ses  lettres." 


252     FOR  THE  GREATER  GLORY  OF  GOD 

of  a  daimyo  asking  the  viceroy  at  Goa  for  teachers 
of  the  Catholic  faith;  and  second,  the  plea  of  a 
Japanese  exile,  one  Anjiro,  afterward  known  by  his 
baptismal  name  of  Paul  of  the  Holy  Faith,  who  was 
instructed  by  the  Fathers  in  the  college  at  Goa.  For 
a  little  more  than  two  years,  Xavier  remained  in  Japan, 
winning  far  fewer  converts,  however,  than  in  India. 
Yet  his  resourcefulness  is  even  more  apparent.  Like 
his  companions  of  a  later  day  in  America,  he  displayed 
a  spirit  of  intrepid  self-sacrifice.  The  journey  to 
Kyoto  was  made  through  winter  snows.  Two  months 
of  travel  on  foot,  over  difficult  roads,  brought  him  to 
the  royal  city,  only  to  find  its  streets  desolated  with 
internecine  warfare.  With  no  hope  of  obtaining  an 
interview  with  Mikado  or  Shogun,  and  with  almost 
no  knowledge  of  the  Japanese  language,  Xavier  was 
forced  to  leave  the  capital  in  grievous  disappointment. 
The  days  were  long  and  weary,  much  speaking  gave 
him  chronic  weakness  of  the  throat,  and  the  perform- 
ance of  the  baptismal  rite  often  left  him  thoroughly 
exhausted.  He  literally  wore  out  his  life  in  the  service 
to  which  he  believed  God  had  called  him  for  the  salva- 
tion of  souls.  Yet,  with  it  all,  Xavier  is  not  to  us  of 
to-day  so  admirable  a  figure  as  that  stalwart  champion 
of  the  oppressed  in  our  own  America,  who,  in  the  suf- 
ferings of  the  Indian,  saw  his  Saviour  crucified  afresh, 
and  renounced  wealth  and  honour  to  plead  through  a 
long  lifetime  the  cause  of  a  helpless  people.  Surely 
if  Xavier  the  Jesuit  has  won  the  honour  of  the  Prot- 
estant world,  Las  Casas  should  be  remembered  as  one 
who  understood  the  mind  of  the  Master  even  as  we 
also  read  His  thought. 

From  Bungo,  also,  Xavier  was  driven  away  by  the 
opposition  of  the  Buddhist  priests.     He  now  turned 


JESUIT  LABOURERS  253 

his  thought  to  the  estabHshment  of  the  Christian  re- 
Hgion  in  China;  but  finding  that  great  empire  closed 
to  the  ordinary  traveller,  returned  to  Goa  for  assist- 
ance. The  next  year,  1552,  he  once  more  set  out,  this 
time  under  the  protection  of  a  rich  merchant,  who 
hoped  to  open  trade  with  the  Celestial  Kingdom.  At 
Malacca  the  entire  ship's  company  was  arrested  by 
a  son  of  Vasco  da  Gama.  After  a  stormy  passage  in 
a  small  boat,  Xavier  reached  the  coast  of  China,  mak- 
ing his  first  stop  at  the  island  of  San  Chan,  where  he 
was  forced  to  remain  many  weeks,  seeking  passage 
for  the  mainland.  Exposure  and  unceasing  labour 
had  done  their  work,  and  on  this  lonely  island,  among 
a  strange  folk  and  without  proper  medical  care,  the 
brave  missionary  passed  the  bounds  of  this  present 
life  on  the  second  of  December,  1552.  He  died  with 
the  name  of  Jesus  upon  his  lips,  as  it  had  so  often  been 
in  life.  For  ten  years  he  had  laboured  on  the  mission 
field,  laying  down  his  life  at  the  comparatively  early 
age  of  forty-six,  after  having  given  the  world  a  nota- 
ble example  of  missionary  heroism. 

Meanwhile,  Portuguese  and  Spanish  navigators  and 
grandees  were  exploring  and  exploiting  the  lands  of 
South  America.  By  the  treaty  of  Tordesillas  in  1494, 
the  continent  was  divided  for  colonization  between  the 
two  nations,  what  is  now  Brazil  coming  under  Portu- 
guese and  western  South  America  under  Spanish  con- 
trol. On  the  continent,  as  on  the  islands  and  in  Mex- 
ico, the  majority  of  priests  and  monks,  who  were  to 
be  found  wherever  flew  the  Spanish  or  Portuguese 
flag,  and  to  whom  was  due  the  conversion  of  South 
America  to  Roman  Catholicism,  were  in  greater  or  less 
degree  unworthy  stewards  of  the  Master's  kingdom. 


254     FOR  THE  GREATER  GLORY  OF  GOD 

The  Jesuits,  to  be  sure,  strove  for  higher  morals  and 
stood  for  education  of  a  certain  sort.  "  Primarily,  at 
least,"  writes  Mr.  Dawson,  "  the  Jesuit  purpose  was 
altruistic,  though  the  material  advantages  and  the 
fascination  of  exercising  authority  were  soon  potent 
motives."  ^ 

Nobrega  conducted  the  first  Jesuit  missionaries  to 
South  America  in  1549,  and  thereafter  the  black-robed 
priests  went  everywhere,  bringing  great  numbers  of 
the  native  South  Americans  into  the  Church  of  Rome. 
Their  most  remarkable  conquest  was  made  in  Para- 
guay, where  they  built  up  a  theocracy  lasting  until  the 
expulsion  of  all  Jesuits  from  Latin  centres  in  1767. 
The  Indians  of  this  "  Christian  republic  "  may  have 
enjoyed  kinder  treatment  than  the  Spaniard  or  Portu- 
guese afforded  them  elsewhere,  but  for  this  happiness 
they  paid  dearly,  the  missionaries,  in  true  Jesuit 
fashion,  exacting  absolute  obedience.  The  Indians 
were  taught  to  receive  commands  kneeling  and  to  kiss 
the  garments  of  the  Fathers  reverently  out  of  gratitude 
and  honour  to  the  men  who  stood  before  them  in  the 
place  of  God.  Under  the  direction  of  the  missionaries 
they  cultivated  the  land,  built  houses  and  churches, 
learned  weaving  and  lace-making,  and  became  skilful 
in  manuscript-copying.  Yet  it  must  be  remembered 
that  from  the  products  of  Indian  labour  the  Jesuits 
gained  increasingly  large  revenues  and  when  the  blow 
fell  were  owners  of  valuable  estates. 

The  results  of  Roman  Catholic  missions  in  South 
America  may  be  read  large  in  the  immorality,  the  su- 
perstition, and  the  infidelity  of  the  Latin  America  of 
to-day.  Almost  without  exception,  the  Bible  is  un- 
read, and  in  many  places  it  is  forbidden.     There  is 

1  Thomas  C.  Dawson,  "South  American  Republics." 


JESUIT  LABOURERS  ^55 

very  little  preaching  in  the  churches  and  few  Sunday 
Schools.  The  real  Christ,  the  living  Christ,  is  un- 
known to  those  who  profess  to  be  His  followers.  Yet 
the  very  hostility  with  which  the  Roman  Catholic 
Church  is  regarded  by  the  men  whom  it  seeks  to  win — 
so  different  an  attitude  from  the  respect  in  which  that 
Church  is  held  in  the  United  States — is  proof,  per- 
haps, that  our  neighbours  of  the  South  are  looking  out 
toward  better  things.  When  the  Christ  is  truly  lifted 
up  in  that  great  continent,  whether  by  Catholic  or 
Protestant,  He  will  draw  this  doubting  people  unto 
Himself. 

Once  more  the  scene  shifts,  and  the  luxuriant  ver- 
dure of  the  tropics  fades  slowly  into  the  more  quiet 
tints  of  a  northern  landscape.  A  mighty  river  bears 
downward  to  the  sea  between  shores  dark  to  the 
water's  edge  with  sombre  forests  of  fir  and  of  pine, 
of  elm  and  beech  and  maple.  Through  the  gloom  of 
these  woodland  ways  glide  dusky  figures  of  Huron  or 
Algonquin  warrior,  taking  their  way  silently  to  some 
bark-covered  lodge  by  a  distant  water-course.  Save 
for  the  rude  buildings  on  the  crags  of  Quebec,  habita- 
tion of  white  man  there  is  none.  Yet  here,  with  the 
first  of  the  French,  are  the  black-robed  Jesuits,  ready 
to  give  life  itself  for  what  they  deem  God's  glory  in 
this  land  of  the  sunset.  So  strange  a  belief  is  theirs, 
so  simple  their  mind,  so  great  their  credulity  often 
despite  scholastic  attainment,  so  much  of  superstition 
blends  with  Christian  truth,  so  great  a  weight  of  em- 
phasis is  laid  on  things  we  hold  of  lesser  import. 
Nevertheless,  to  all  time  shall  the  stories  of  Brebeuf, 
of  Jogues,  of  Garnier,  and  of  Daniel  thrill  the  reader 
like  the  music  of  flute  and  of  drum  calling  the  soldier 


256    FOR  THE  GREATER  GLORY  OF  GOD 

to  the  field  of  strife,  where  brave  men  battle  and  die. 
Says  the  historian  Parkman :  "  That  gloomy  wilder- 
ness, those  herds  of  savages,  had  nothing  to  tempt  the 
ambitious,  the  proud,  the  grasping,  or  the  indolent. 
Obscure  toil,  solitude,  privation,  hardship,  and  death 
were  to  be  the  missionary's  portion.  He  who  set  sail 
for  the  country  of  the  Hurons  left  behind  him  the 
world  and  all  its  prizes." 

Perhaps  the  noblest  and  the  most  heroic  of  them 
all  was  Isaac  Jogues,  who,  from  a  life  of  scholarly  pur- 
suits in  his  native  France,  went  out  to  the  Canadian 
forests  at  the  age  of  twenty-eight  to  suffer  a  living 
martyrdom  before  finally  giving  his  life  for  his  faith. 
The  first  years  were  spent  in  the  Huron  mission,  on 
the  shores  of  the  Georgian  Bay,  in  Ontario.  Along 
forest  ways,  under  a  cold  moonlight,  or  through  the 
drifting  storm,  in  the  fierce  heat  of  summer  or  the 
heavy  downpour  of  November  days,  this  dauntless 
missionary  journeyed  willingly  from  village  to  village 
and  from  tribe  to  tribe. 

But  the  most  severe  sufferings  were  yet  in  store 
for  him.  In  the  summer  of  1642,  with  a  band  of  In- 
dians and  missionary  recruits  from  Quebec,  he  was 
ascending  the  St.  Lawrence  when,  on  a  sudden,  among 
the  islands  of  the  Lake  of  St.  Peter,  the  whizzing  ar- 
rows of  Mohawk  enemies  sang  the  death  song  for 
some  of  their  number.  Jogues  might  have  escaped, 
but  when  he  saw  Goupil  and  Couture,  his  helpers  from 
the  mission-house,  in  the  hands  of  the  savages,  he 
turned  back  and  gave  himself  up  to  the  attacking  war- 
riors. And  have  we  a  finer  act  than  this  in  all  mis- 
sionary annals?  The  prisoners  were  carried  to  the 
country  of  the  Mohawks,  suffering  greatly  all  the  way 
down  the  River  Richelieu  and  over  Lake  Champlain 


JESUIT  LABOURERS  257 

and  Lake  George,  and  at  their  journey's  end  tortured 
with  all  the  means  which  savage  ingenuity  could  de- 
vise. For  days  they  lived  in  fear  of  being  burned 
alive,  as  were  their  Huron  companions.  In  the  end 
Goupil  was  slain,  Couture  adopted  into  the  tribe,  and, 
after  many  months,  Jogues  succeeded  in  escaping  to 
New  Amsterdam,  whence  he  was  returned  to  France. 
One  might  suppose  that  these  experiences  would 
have  satisfied  his  missionary  zeal.  Not  so.  Within 
a  few  months  we  find  the  intrepid  labourer  again  sail- 
ing for  his  perilous  life  in  the  wilderness,  having  ob- 
tained permission  of  the  Pope  to  perform  mass,  from 
which,  according  to  Roman  law,  his  lacerated  hands 
debarred  him.  Two  years  later  he  was,  at  the  com- 
mand of  the  government,  once  more  among  his  old- 
time  foes,  the  Mohawks,  on  the  Mission  of  the  Mar- 
tyrs. He  had  said,  "  I  shall  go  and  shall  not  return." 
On  the  eighteenth  of  October,  1646,  in  the  forests  near 
Lake  George,  he  was  set  upon  by  a  war  band,  made 
captive,  and  put  to  death  after  fearful  torture.  One 
is  glad  to  remember  that  this  intrepid  missionary  vol- 
untarily went  forth  to  his  life  of  hardship  in  the  wil- 
derness. Not  the  command  of  his  General,  but  his 
own  wish  led  him  to  the  country  of  the  Hurons. 


VI 

HEROES  OF  THE  ICE-BOUND  NORTH 
The  Egedes  in  Greenland 

*'  Say  not  the  struggle  naught  availeth, 
The  labour  and  the  wounds  are  vain  ; 

9  •  *  •  •  »  — 

For  while  the  tired  waves  vainly  breaking 

Seem  here  no  painful  inch  to  gain, 
Far  back,  through  creeks  and  inlets  making, 

Comes  silent,  flooding  in,  the  main." 

— Arthur  Hugh  Clough. 

THE  Northmen  were  ever  a  venturous  race. 
The  call  of  the  tossing,  tumbling  waves,  now 
hurrying  down  in  almost  human  rage  upon  the 
black  viking  ships,  now  swept  across  by  summer  winds 
and  lulled  to  treacherous  quiet, — that  mysterious, 
haunting,  resistless  call, — fell  early  upon  the  ears  of 
the  Norse  lads  in  their  bleak  northern  home,  and  lured 
them  forth  to  become  kings  of  the  sea  and  conquerors 
of  distant  lands.  Among  the  rocky  Scotch  islets,  by 
Irish  coasts,  or  breasting  the  seas  to  plant  a  new  Scan- 
dinavia in  far-away  Iceland,  their  long,  pointed  craft 
became  an  all  too  familiar  object  to  the  anxious 
watcher,  and  even  when,  a  century  and  a  half  after 
Rollo's  landing  in  France,  his  descendants  had  become 
a  peaceable,  law-abiding  folk  in  their  new  home,  the 
old  longing  for  adventure  and  conquest  was  still  strong 
upon  them,  and  the  mother  duchy  sent  forth  her  sons 

258 


THE  EGEDES  IN  GREENLAND         259 

to  win  new  dominions  to  southward  and  to  north- 
ward. 

Strangest  of  all  these  tales  is  the  record  of  their 
lost  settlements  in  Greenland.  Already  had  the  Scan- 
dinavians laid  the  foundations  of  the  Icelandic  republic 
when  a  venturous  sailor  from  among  them,  so  say  the 
sagas,  on  a  westward  voyage,  sighted  the  cliffs  of  a 
new  land.  Gunnbjorn's  discovery  was  told  in  the  fire- 
lighted  halls  of  the  Norse  warriors,  and,  though  no 
effort  was  then  made  to  explore  this  unknown  land 
lying  away  toward  the  polar  sunset,  the  sea-rover's 
story  was  not  forgotten,  and  when,  years  afterward, 
the  great  jarl  Eric  was  exiled  from  his  island  home  for 
blood  revenge,  it  was  toward  the  land  of  the  snow 
cliffs  that  he  turned  his  dragon  prow.  For  three  years 
he  braved  the  lurking  dangers  of  this  bleak  north- 
land,  exploring  the  islands  of  the  east  coast,  pene- 
trating its  fjords  and  faring  from  point  to  point  on 
the  mainland.  No  pleasant  exile,  one  would  think, 
these  journeyings  among  broken  armies  of  ice  giants 
and  under  the  gleam  of  the  Valkyrs'  armour,^  this 
sojourn  beneath  the  shadow  of  the  snow  mountains  of 
Niflheim.  Perhaps  impatience  at  restraint  and  the 
thought  of  his  old  enemies,  perhaps  the  Norse  love  of 
venturing  into  the  unknown,  led  Eric,  on  his  return  to 
Iceland,  to  paint  the  land  of  his  exile  with  colours  so 
glowing  that  he  gained  his  desire  and  sailed  back  to 
Greenland  with  ships  and  men  and  cattle  for  the  found- 
ing of  a  colony.  Again  the  old  story  of  danger  and 
difficulty.  The  sea  and  the  ice  claimed  their  toll  of 
mariners  daring  enough  to  invade  their  kingdom,  and 
of  twenty-five  ships  but  fourteen  reached  Greenland. 
Yet  the  lure  of  the  North  drew  other  companies  from 
1  The  aurora  borealis. 


260     HEROES  OF  THE  ICE-BOUND  NORTH 

Iceland,  and  even  from  distant  Norway,  and  trade 
sprang  up  and  homes  were  built,  and  by  and  by  Chris- 
tianity was  introduced,  stone  churches  erected,  and  a 
bishop  called. 

While  the  spirit  of  adventure  was  yet  upon  these 
bold  seafarers,  was  made  that  summer  voyage  which 
first  discovered  to  the  European  the  shores  of  America 
and  won  for  Eric's  son  the  name  of  Leif  the 
Lucky.  And  now  other  voyages  were  made  by  Thor- 
wald  and  Thorstein,  Leif's  brothers,  and  settlements 
attempted  which  came  to  naught,  for  Vinland  was 
destined  to  remain  yet  many  centuries  unexplored  and 
uncolonized.  When  at  last  the  continent  which  Leif 
had  discovered  was  found  again  and  all  Europe  was 
ringing  with  news  of  lands  beyond  the  Atlantic,  these 
Norse  settlements  in  Greenland  had  disappeared  and 
the  land  itself  was  almost  forgotten.  Did  not  the 
ruins  of  their  stone  buildings  remain,  and  runic  tomb- 
stones and  Christian  burial  slabs,  a  proof  of  Scandi- 
navian colonization,  one  might  be  tempted  to  believe 
the  narratives  of  the  Icelandic  sagas  mere  tales  of  the 
imagination. 

Of  the  fate  of  these  far-away  Northmen  probably 
little  will  ever  be  known.  The  plague  which  swept 
over  Europe  in  the  fourteenth  century  interrupted  the 
Greenland  trade,  and  only  fitful  communication  was 
carried  on  afterward,  and  that  for  a  little  time.  There 
is  note  of  a  bishop  being  sent  them  in  1406,  but  no 
record  of  his  arrival.  Thereafter  the  northern  colony 
is  hidden  in  the  mists  of  oblivion.  Whether,  deserted 
by  their  countrymen,  they  were  fallen  upon  by  the  sav- 
age Greenlanders  of  the  east  coast  and  slain,  or 
mingling  with  the  Eskimos,  were  more  gradually  lost 
to  Scandinavia,  is  an  unanswered  and  perhaps  unan- 


THE  EGEDES  IN  GREENLAND         261 

swerable  question.^  Nevertheless,  it  was  the  memory 
of  these  same  lost  settlers  that,  after  the  passage  of 
centuries,  brought  again  the  gospel  to  Greenland  and 
won  its  Eskimo  inhabitants  to  the  Christ. 

In  the  year  1707  there  was  ordained  in  the  parish  of 
Vaagen,  in  the  Lofoten  Islands,  a  Norse  pastor  who, 
for  dauntless  determination  and  heroism,  deserves  a 
place  in  every  narrative  of  missionary  beginnings. 
Hans  Egede  was  born  on  the  island  of  Senjen,  off 
northern  Norway,  on  the  thirty-first  of  January,  1686. 
From  study  in  Denmark,  he  came  to  the  Lofotens  to 
preach,  and,  looking  off  from  the  noble  scenery  of 
these  islands,  over  the  seas  sailed  by  his  warrior  ances- 
tors, came  to  think  much  upon  Norway's  past,  and 
especially  upon  the  story  he  had  read  in  the  old  sagas 
of  Scandinavian  settlements  in  Greenland.  Perhaps, 
somewhere  across  the  sun-touched  waters,  they  were 
still  living  among  the  ice  mountains  and,  lost  to  home 
influences,  had  forgotten  their  old-time  faith.  Was  it 
not,  then,  for  the  true  patriot  and  the  true  Christian 
to  seek  out  these  distant  countrymen  and  give  them 
again  the  message  of  peace?  Not  that  Mr.  Egede 
as  yet  dreamed  of  going  himself  to  seek  the  lost.  But 
he  addressed  petitions  to  the  bishops  of  Trondhjem 
and  Bergen  and  took  pains  to  collect  what  information 
he  could  concerning  Greenland.  The  bishops  were 
kind  in  their  answers,  but  let  the  matter  drop  there. 

Not  only  indifference  and  delay,  but  opposition,  and 
that  of  a  subtle  sort,  confronted  the  good  pastor  in  his 
desires  for  the  welfare  of  Greenland.  For  now  the 
thought  was  being  forced  upon  Mr.  Egede  that  if  the 
mission  were  to  become  a  reality,  he  must  go  in  person. 
But  the  Norwegian  pastor  had  wife  and  children  and 

*  Appendix  I,  note  6. 


^62     HEROES  OF  THE  ICE-BOUND  NORTH 

relatives  to  care  for,  and  the  living  at  Vaagen  was  a 
good  one.  When  family  and  friends  urge  the  weight 
of  one's  responsibility  and  paint  the  terrors  of  the  sea 
and  the  folly  of  giving  up  the  known  for  the  unknown, 
how  can  one  help  yielding? 

So  the  days  slipped  away,  but  endeavour  as  he  would 
to  close  his  ears  to  their  cry,  Hans  Egede  could  not 
forget  the  men  of  the  distant  west.  He  prayed  much 
and  at  last  the  beginning  of  the  answer  came.  Mrs. 
Egede  was  won  to  his  cause,  and  when  a  brave  Chris- 
tian woman  supplements  her  husband's  efforts,  all  dif- 
ficulties at  last  fade  away  as  the  snow  before  the 
sunshine  of  spring.  To  be  sure,  years  of  delay  and 
opposition  were  yet  to  intervene  between  the  glad  de- 
cision and  the  accomplishment  of  the  mission,  but  the 
end  was  now  certain. 

Pastor  Egede's  first  step  after  his  wife's  conversion 
to  his  plans  was  to  address  a  memorial  to  the  recently- 
established  College  of  Missions  at  Copenhagen.  The 
matter  appealed  to  its  directors,  but  Mr.  Egede  was 
again  put  off  by  the  Norwegian  bishops,  while  the  peo- 
ple of  Vaagen  sought  to  turn  him  from  his  purpose, 
first  by  persuasion  and  then  by  derision  and  defama- 
tion. Wearying  at  length  of  so  much  delay,  Mr. 
Egede  resigned  his  living  and  travelled  to  Bergen  with 
his  family.  This  was  in  1718,  ten  years  after  his 
first  conception  of  a  mission  to  Greenland. 

Hans  Egede  at  the  great  seaport  of  Bergen,  seeking 
ships  to  renew  the  Greenland  trade  and  to  carry  the 
knowledge  of  God  to  the  frozen  north,  is  a  heroic 
figure.  Nor  less  heroic  is  the  picture  of  his  noble 
wife.  An  assured  income  had  been  renounced  for 
a  future  doubtful  enough,  because  no  one  cared  to 
invest  money  in  chimerical  schemes.     Rumours  had 


THE  EGEDES  IN  GREENLAND         263 

come  of  a  ship  wrecked  on  Greenland  coasts  and  of 
the  cannibalism  of  the  natives.  The  good  citizens  of 
Bergen,  practical  and  thrifty,  looked  upon  the  pastor 
and  his  wife  as  hopeless  visionaries.  Nor  can  we 
wonder  at  the  inability  of  these  Northern  Christians 
to  understand  the  noble  purpose  of  the  Egedes.  Of 
the  efforts  made  in  America  for  the  Indians  little 
would  be  known  in  Norway.  The  Moravian  Church 
was  not  yet  gathered  out  of  Catholic  Austria,  and  its 
missions  were  undreamed  of.  Only  two  of  the  fore- 
runners of  modern  missions  had  as  yet  ventured  out 
upon  the  great  deep.  Bartholomew  Ziegenbalg  and 
Henry  Pliitschau  had  sailed  from  Copenhagen  for 
India  in  1705,  and  only  the  year  before  the  arrival 
of  Pastor  Egede  at  Bergen,  Ziegenbalg  visited  Den- 
mark and  told  the  story  of  his  labours  in  Tranque- 
bar  to  throngs  of  eager  listeners.  To  Copenhagen, 
therefore,  Mr.  Egede  resolved  to  go. 

How  the  heart  of  this  humble  Norwegian  pastor 
must  have  leaped  for  joy  when,  on  reaching  Denmark, 
he  received  a  summons  to  lay  his  plans  before  his  sov- 
ereign. The  result  of  the  interview  was  a  royal  com- 
mand to  the  Bergen  magistrates  to  look  into  the  feasi- 
bility of  renewing  the  Greenland  trade  and  to  return  a 
report  to  the  court.  Cheered  by  the  sympathy  of  the 
king  and  of  the  members  of  the  mission  college,  Mr. 
Egede  returned  to  Bergen  believing  that  a  way  was  at 
last  opening  before  him.  But  his  faith  was  to  be  tried 
yet  further.  The  information  which  was  forwarded 
to  Copenhagen  was  unsatisfactory,  and  even  of  such  a 
character  as  to  set  Mr.  Egede  in  an  unfair  light.  And 
so  yet  another  avenue  was  closed. 

There  comes  a  time  when,  disappointment  added  to 
disappointment,  it  seems  as  if  the  soul  must  sink  be- 


264     HEROES  OF  THE  ICE-BOUND  NORTH 

neath  the  weary  burden.  It  would  not  be  surprising 
to  find  Mr.  Egede,  this  supreme  hope  shattered,  return- 
ing to  his  old  vocation.  But  the  sturdy  Norwegian 
was  cast  in  a  different  mould,  and  the  blood  of  the 
old  vikings  was  yet  to  bring  victory.  The  pastor's 
next  move  was  to  address  himself  personally  to  mer- 
chants who  could  help  him  accomplish  his  purpose. 
From  Hamburg  came  an  offer  of  substantial  aid  and 
the  prestige  of  a  well-known  name  gave  a  sudden  popu- 
larity to  the  Greenland  project,  but  the  Danish  mer- 
chant withdrew  his  offer  and  the  mission  seemed  far- 
ther away  than  ever. 

Finally  the  sheer  courage  and  determination  of  the 
man  won  the  hearts  of  a  few  wealthy  Christians.  It 
would  do  no  harm,  so  they  doubtless  reasoned,  to  in- 
vest a  little  money  in  the  undertaking,  although 
the  outcome  of  the  proceeding  was  still  regarded  as 
doubtful.  Money  enough  was  raised  to  fit  out  three 
ships  and,  on  the  second  of  May,  1721,  Hans  Egede 
sailed  with  his  family  out  of  Bergen  for  the  icebound 
lands  of  the  polar  west.  Just  before  leaving  Norway 
he  received  from  the  king  an  appointment  as  pastor  of 
the  new  colony  and  missionary  to  the  native  Green- 
landers,  with  a  salary  of  sixty  pounds. 

It  is  a  brave  picture  that  our  thought  paints  of  this 
Norwegian  pastor's  wife.  As  the  bold  outlines  of 
the  beloved  homeland  fade  away  on  the  distant  hori- 
zon, we  watch  her  turn  resolutely  again  to  her  four 
little  ones  to  quiet  them  with  a  mother's  comfort.  At 
that  moment  a  new  chapter  of  life  is  begun.  The  old 
days  are  forever  over,  for  Mrs.  Egede  will  never  again 
look  upon  her  native  mountains. 

When  a  month  had  passed  the  ships  sighted  the 
southern  shores  of  Greenland,  but  the  new  land  re- 


D 

O 


o 
a 


THE  EGEDES  IN  GREENLAND         265 

ceived  them  inhospitably,  and  storm  and  fog  closed  in 
upon  them.  One  of  the  vessels  was  separated  from 
the  others  and,  with  masts  torn  away,  returned  to 
Norway.  And  now,  within  a  few  miles  of  their 
haven,  they  are  shut  off  by  vast  fields  of  floating  ice, 
with  the  storm  increasing  in  fury.  Attempting  to 
penetrate  a  narrow  opening  in  the  ice,  one  of  the  ships 
is  injured  and,  as  night  comes  on,  the  white  walls  close 
about  them.  Are  all  those  years  of  dauntless  faith 
to  end  at  last  in  shipwreck  on  a  lonely  coast  ?  Wearily 
the  hours  drag  on,  and  then,  out  of  the  darkness  and 
the  fog,  dawns  a  new  day  and,  marvel  of  God's  care, 
far  as  eye  can  reach,  only  floating  fragments  of  ice, 
in  an  open  sea,  with  on  the  eastward  horizon  the 
broken  coastline  of  Greenland.  Eight  days  later  they 
disembark  on  a  small  island  at  the  opening  of  a  fjord 
known  as  Ball's  River,  and  set  about  building  them  a 
house  of  earth  and  stone. 

Disappointment,  however,  seemed  to  have  sailed 
with  them  to  Greenland.  All  the  long  way  they  had 
come  to  bring  back  to  the  Christ  the  descendants  of 
the  brave  Norsemen.  But  in  these  small,  dark-haired, 
olive-skinned  Greenlanders,  dull  of  understanding  and 
uncouth  in  manner  of  life,  sole  dwellers  of  this  deso- 
late northland,  they  saw  no  trace  of  Norse  blood. 
Only  here  and  there,  as  they  went  about  exploring,  the 
traders  would  come  upon  some  old  church  tower  or 
the  fallen  stones  of  buildings  that  must  once  have, 
sheltered  fair-haired  Norse  chieftains.  In  secluded 
valleys  they  lay  by  the  side  of  the  blue  fjord,  lonely 
and  solitary  as  the  ruins  of  Gerasa,  and  as  myste- 
rious in  their  downfall. 

Still  there  were  the  interests  of  the  Bergen  mer- 
chants to  be  remembered,  and  the  colony  to  be  cared 


^66    HEROES  OF  THE  ICE-BOUND  NORTH 

for.  During  all  the  fifteen  years  of  his  labours  for 
the  Eskimos  of  Greenland,  Mr.  Egede  had  continu- 
ously the  oversight  of  the  home  trade  and  responsi- 
bility for  its  success.  Yet  not  otherwise  could  he  have 
opened  up  Greenland  to  Christian  missions,  and  who 
shall  say  that  the  wise  administration  Denmark  gave 
her  distant  colony  and  the  care  with  which  she  ex- 
cluded those  evils  in  other  lands  the  worst  enemy  of  the 
missionary  were  not  in  large  measure  due  to  the  noble 
foundation  laid  by  the  missionary-trader  from  Vaagen  ? 
It  was  July  when  the  little  company  of  forty  souls 
first  set  foot  on  Greenland  soil.  Summer  in  these 
northern  regions  lasts  for  only  a  few  weeks.  Frozen 
ground  until  June,  and  perhaps  snow  flurries  in 
August,  with  snow  for  the  winter  by  September  or 
October, — these  are  the  conditions  of  a  Greenland 
year.  In  the  long  midsummer  days  fog  and  mist 
often  hide  the  cheering  brightness  of  the  sun,  fol- 
lowed at  night-time  by  the  chill  from  the  great  inland 
ice  and  floating  icebergs  and  icefields.  With  the  com- 
ing of  winter  the  cold  became  intense.  From  the  dis- 
tant cliffs  came  the  sound  of  rocks  riven  by  the  cold. 
The  hoarfrost  penetrated  the  fire-warmed  shelters. 
Over  the  sea  hovered  the  frost-smoke,  which,  forced 
to  land,  was  transformed  into  a  multitude  of  tiny  ice 
flakes.  At  other  times  the  dry  snow-dust,  caught  up 
by  the  winds  and  driven  onward  with  icy  force,  pre- 
vented any  one  from  venturing  out  of  doors.  Nor 
were  the  Eskimos  willing  to  trade  much  with  them, 
preferring  to  save  the  surplus  of  their  stores  for  the 
Dutch  vessels  which  they  had  learned  to  expect  in  the 
spring.  By  the  winter's  end  provisions  were  failing, 
and  even  the  good  missionary  half  inclined  to  a  return 
in  the  Dutch  trading-ships.     But  for  brave  Mrs.  Egede 


THE  EGEDES  IN  GREENLAND         267 

the  settlement  would  have  ceased  long  before  the  June 
days  brought  supplies  from  Bergen. 

It  was  no  easy  task  to  win  the  confidence  of  the 
native  Greenlanders,  and  even  when  the  suspicions  of 
the  people  were  laid,  they  were  still  well  content  with 
their  condition  and  seemingly  incapable  of  understand- 
ing the  spiritual  message  which  Pastor  Egede  brought 
them.  To  add  to  other  difficulties,  he  must  grapple 
with  a  language  totally  unlike  any  European  speech. 
The  children  could  be  induced  to  study  only  by  the 
promise  of  a  fishhook  for  each  letter  learned,  and  even 
then  they  soon  wearied  and  complained  of  restraint. 
With  the  older  natives,  also,  material  good  alone 
seemed  of  weight.  If  Mr.  Egede  told  them  of  mira- 
cles, they  were  unable  to  understand  the  great  miracle 
that  God  works  in  the  soul  of  man,  and  looked  to  the 
great  Angekok  (Magician)  only  for  healing  for  their 
sick  and  success  in  seal-hunting. 

One  cannot  help  surmising  that  much  of  the  failure 
to  reach  the  hearts  of  the  Eskimos  lay  in  the  theology 
of  Pastor  Egede's  day,  which  certainly  did  not  fit  the 
labourer  to  tell  the  story  of  God's  love  simply  and 
effectively  as  to  little  children.  Educationally  and 
otherwise,  Mr.  Egede  stood  at  the  portals  of  our 
modern  age,  while  the  fact  that  he  came  to  trade  with 
the  Eskimos  acted  as  a  hindrance  to  a  perfect  faith 
in  the  disinterestedness  of  his  purpose. 

As  we  have  said,  the  existence  of  the  mission  de- 
pended upon  the  prosperity  of  the  colony  commercially, 
and  more  than  once,  when  all  seemed  going  well,  a 
poor  year's  trade  brought  anxiety  to  the  missionaries, 
making  it  necessary  for  them  to  give  more  and  more 
time  to  business  transactions  with  the  natives.  Fi- 
nally, at  the  accession  of  Christian  the  Sixth,  in  1731, 


268     HEROES  OF  THE  ICE-BOUND  NORTH 

the  colony  was  ordered  home,  permission  being  given 
to  the  Egedes  to  remain  alone  if  they  wished.  For 
a  time  it  was  indeed  dark  for  our  missionaries,  but, 
ships  failing  for  the  transfer  of  the  entire  colony,  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  year  some  help  was  sent  those 
who  remained,  and  a  year  later  came  the  joyful  news 
that  the  colony  was  to  be  continued. 

Had  Mr.  Egede  been  a  less  conservative  and  con- 
scientious man,  the  report  of  the  mission  would  prob- 
ably have  been  of  greater  weight  at  court.  For  many 
of  the  Greenlanders  gave  assent  at  last  to  his  teachings 
and  desired  baptism.  A  Xavier  or  a  Dutch  clergyman 
would  soon  have  recorded  large  numbers  of  Christians 
in  Greenland.  But,  because  the  Danish  labourer  dis- 
covered no  fruits  of  their  faith  in  the  life,  he  refused 
to  perform  the  sacred  rite,  nor  thought  himself  far 
wrong  when  later  he  learned  that  these  same  appar- 
ently devout  Greenlanders  among  their  own  people 
made  mock  of  his  preaching  and  praying.  His  long- 
ing was  to  educate  and  train  the  children,  but  here 
also  he  was  hindered  by  the  roving  habits  of  the 
Eskimos. 

In  the  midst  of  all  these  labours.  Pastor  Egede 
counted  himself  rich  in  the  love  and  untiring  support 
and  sympathy  of  a  noble  wife.  When,  in  the  settle- 
ment's early  days,  despair  seized  the  colonists,  and 
even  their  leader  was  ready  to  return  to  Norway,  Mrs. 
Egede  resolutely  refused  to  pack  the  household  effects, 
counselling  patience  and  prophesying  the  speedy  com- 
ing of  the  supply  ships.  Only  to  her  was  it  due  that 
the  company  did  not  leave  Greenland  on  the  Dutch 
ships  at  the  close  of  that  first  winter.  With  true  tact 
she  won  the  hearts  of  the  Eskimos,  and  never  did  mis- 
sionary's wife  give  herself  with  more  self-denying 


THE  EGEDES  IN  GREENLAND         269 

love  to  the  sick  and  needy,  and  none  ever  displayed  a 
more  true  and  high  Christian  courage.  Without  Ger- 
trude Egede  the  Danish  mission  in  Greenland  would 
have  been  an  impossibility. 

Hardly  were  the  missionaries  freed  from  the  anxiety 
caused  by  the  attitude  of  King  Christian  toward  the 
continuance  of  the  colony,  when  a  pestilence  broke  out 
at  Godhaab,  carrying  away  two  or  three  thousand  of 
the  native  Greenlanders.  The  home  of  the  missiona- 
ries was  given  over  to  the  sick  and  dying.  Without 
fear  they  moved  among  the  natives  in  their  villages, 
and  won  their  love,  if  not  their  interest  in  higher 
things.  Although  they  could  do  little  to  stay  the  rav- 
ages of  the  dread  disease,  they  had  at  last  opportunity 
for  proving  that  they  were  among  the  Greenlanders 
for  no  other  purpose  than  to  do  them  good.  One  man 
voiced  this  conviction  when  he  said,  "  You  have  done 
for  us  what  our  own  people  would  not  do."  For  a 
year  the  pestilence  continued,  and  when  it  was  at  last 
over,  the  country  around  the  trading-post  and  for 
miles  southward  and  northward,  was  almost  de- 
populated. 

Many  voices  were  now  calling  Mr.  Egede  back  to 
Europe.  Broken  health  prevented  him  from  making 
long  missionary  tours.  In  this  remote  country  he 
could  not  provide  suitably  for  the  education  of  his 
children.  More  than  all,  he  felt  that  the  colony  could 
now  be  safely  left  in  the  care  of  his  son  and  the  other 
missionaries,  and  that  his  personal  plea  at  Copenhagen 
would  mean  more  for  the  future  of  the  mission  than  a 
prolongation  of  his  services  in  Greenland.  Early  in 
1735  h^  wrote  for  and  obtained  an  honourable  dis- 
charge, and  for  Mrs.  Egede  there  was  a  brief  promise 
of  a  return  to  home  and  friends.     But,  though  forti- 


270    HEROES  OF  THE  ICE-BOUND  NORTH 

tude  and  Christian  faith  will  carry  the  soul  far,  the 
body  at  last  gives  way  before  too  great  a  strain. 
When  the  pestilence  was  only  a  year  away,  Mrs.  Egede 
succumbed  to  the  long  burden  of  anxiety  and  privation. 
Her  watch-care  for  others  could  not  prevent  the  com- 
ing of  that  messenger  none  may  ever  refuse,  and,  on 
the  twenty-first  of  December,  1735,  the  brave  wife  and 
mother  entered  into  rest.  For  such  heroism  is  the 
world  infinitely  richer  and  nobler. 

Worn  by  his  long  struggle  for  Greenland,  and  sor- 
rowing for  the  companion  of  all  his  labours  and 
anxieties,  Mr.  Egede  himself  fell  ill,  and,  in  the  August 
following  his  wife's  passing,  sailed  for  Copenhagen. 
A  pathetic  picture,  that  last  service  at  Godhaab,  when 
the  man  who  for  thirteen  years  had  faced  all  difficulties 
to  carry  the  gospel  to  this  bleak  northland,  and  fifteen 
years  longer  had  laboured  faithfully,  but  without 
seeming  success,  for  the  conversion  of  its  inhabitants, 
committed  to  his  successors  the  task  of  Christianizing 
Greenland.  He  chose  as  the  text  of  his  farewell  ser- 
mon words  from  the  forty-ninth  chapter  of  Isaiah, 
*'  I  said,  I  have  laboured  in  vain,  I  have  spent  my 
strength  for  naught,  and  in  vain;  yet  surely  my  judg- 
ment is  with  the  Lord,  and  my  work  with  my  God." 
And  his  judgment  has  been  with  God,  and  with  the 
years  He  has  revealed  the  grandeur  of  seeming  defeat. 
For  now  we  know  that  "  not  failure  but  low  aim  is 
crime."  Nor  were  Hans  Egede's  strivings  fruitless. 
Through  them  Greenland  was  once  more  discovered  to 
the  world,  and  a  way  opened  for  Danish  and  Moravian 
missionaries  to  conquests  which  he  had  seen  only  afar 
off,  while  in  high  purpose  and  loyal  devotion  to  a 
great  cause  Mr.  Egede  gave  to  Christian  missions  an 
example  of  splendid  worth.     "  Estimated  on  the  scale 


THE  EGEDES  IN  GREENLAND         271 

of  motives  and  qualities,  this  apostle  was  a  hero  and 
his  mission  a  triumph." 

With  the  body  of  his  beloved  wife,  and  with  the 
children  to  whom  she  had  given  herself  with  so  much 
devotion,  Mr,  Egede  arrived  in  Denmark  on  the 
twenty- fourth  of  September,  1736.  The  next  year  the 
King  appointed  him  superintendent  of  the  work  in 
Greenland  and  directed  him  to  found  a  training-school 
for  the  mission.  He  lived  twenty-two  years  longer, 
preparing  an  exhaustive  work  on  the  natural  history 
of  Greenland,  which  is  still  regarded  as  a  classic, 
and  giving  himself  to  the  forwarding  of  the  Danish 
mission  and  settlements.  The  end  came  on  the  fifth 
of  November,  1758,  at  the  home  of  his  daughter,  on 
the  island  of  Falster.  The  labourer  had  gone,  but 
the  work  lived  on. 

Mr.  Egede's  oldest  son,  Paul,  had  aided  his  father 
from  the  first,  and,  after  study  in  Denmark,  re- 
turned to  Greenland,  to  remain  many  years  as  mis- 
sionary and  director.  In  later  life  he  continued 
his  work  for  the  men  of  the  North  as  professor  of 
theology  in  the  mission  training-school  at  Copenhagen 
and  as  Bishop  of  Greenland.  He  prepared  a  grammar 
of  the  Greenland  tongue,  a  translation  of  a  large  part 
of  the  Bible,  and  of  numerous  prayers  and  liturgies, 
as  well  as  of  "  The  Imitation  of  Christ,"  devoting 
himself  unwearyingly  to  the  welfare  of  the  Greenland 
mission  until  his  death  in  1789. 


VII 

THE  PILGRIMS'  WATCH 
Moravian  Missions 

"Jesus,  still  lead  on, 
Till  our  rest  be  won  ; 
And  although  the  way  be  cheerless, 
We  will  follow,  calm  and  fearless  : 
Guide  us  by  thy  hand 
To  our  Fatherland." 

— Count  von  Zinzendorf, 

JUST  outside  the  quiet  little  town  of  Herrnhut, 
Saxony,  beneath  the  shadow  of  protecting  trees, 
stands  a  simple  monument  with  these  words: 
"  On  this  year  was  felled  the  first  tree  for  the  settle- 
ment of  Herrnhut,  June  17,  1722.  *  Yea,  the  sparrow 
hath  found  a  house  and  the  swallow  a  nest  for  herself, 
where  she  may  lay  her  young,  even  thine  altars,  O 
Lord  of  Hosts,  my  King  and  my  God.'  "  To  this 
uncultivated,  wooded,  and  marshy  bit  of  land — a  part 
of  the  Berthelsdorf  estate  of  Count  Zinzendorf — 
Christian  David  led  the  first  band  of  Moravian  refu- 
gees, sixteen  years  after  the  departure  of  the  Danish 
missionaries  for  India.  In  the  months  following, 
others  of  the  Hidden  Seed,  emboldened  by  the  flight 
of  their  friends,  succeeded  in  escaping  from  Catholic 
oppression  and  before  many  years  the  tangled  morass 
was  cleared  and  the  wilderness  transformed  into  the 
fruitful  field. 

273 


MORAVIAN  MISSIONS  273 

Ten  years  later  this  little  church  had  become  a  for- 
eign missionary  organization.  The  story  runs  as  fol- 
lows. In  1730  Count  Zinzendorf  was  summoned  to 
Copenhagen  to  attend  the  coronation  festivities  of 
Christian  the  Sixth,  and  at  some  time  during  his  stay 
in  the  busy  port,  discovered  men  from  the  North  whom 
Pastor  Egede  had  baptized  and  a  Christian  negro  from 
the  West  Indies  named  Anthony.  Not  long  after- 
ward Anthony  sought  leave  of  absence  from  his  mas- 
ter, and  journeyed  to  Herrnhut,  where,  with  all  the 
eloquence  of  his  race,  he  poured  out  to  the  Brethren 
the  story  of  negro  suffering  and  longing  in  these  dis- 
tant islands,  and  of  his  own  sister  at  work  under  the 
burning  sky  of  the  tropics  and  waiting  for  messengers 
of  the  Good  News  of  which  she  as  yet  knew  so  little. 
The  plea  was  not  made  in  vain.  Leonhard  Dober  and 
David  Nitschmann  ^  offered  themselves  for  service  on 
St.  Thomas  and,  after  some  deliberation,  were  accepted 
by  the  Brethren. 

•  But  the  home  church  was  not  yet  able  to  undertake 
the  support  of  labourers  in  the  foreign  field,  and  these 
men  were  of  humble  origin,  artisans,  without  property, 
so  that  when  they  had  travelled  all  the  long  six  hun- 
dred miles  to  Copenhagen  they  found  themselves  with- 
out money  for  their  passage  to  the  West  Indies,  and 
objects  of  ridicule  to  the  practical  Danes.  Happily, 
God  has  always  loved  the  dreamer  and  ordained  that 
by  his  visions  the  world's  life  should  be  enlarged.  So 
was  it  with  these  Herrnhut  brethren.  When  endur- 
ance was  well-nigh  gone,  the  court  chaplain  and  mem- 
bers of  the  royal  household  interested  themselves  in 
the  missionaries  and  sent  them,  rejoicing,  on  their  way 
to  the  New  World. 
^  Nitschmann  was  to  return,  after  a  little,  to  the  home  church. 


274  THE  PILGRIMS'  WATCH 

On  the  little  island  of  St.  Thomas,  containing  hardly 
more  than  twenty  square  miles,  it  was  easy  to  find 
Anthony's  sister.  A  quotation  from  her  brother's  let- 
ter served  as  a  text  for  the  first  sermon  preached  in  the 
West  Indies  by  Moravian  labourers.  With  the  slaves 
closing  in  about  them,  and  with  the  longing  eyes  of  the 
bondwoman  fixed  upon  them,  these  white  men  from 
beyond  seas  read  and  explained  words  so  dear  to  every 
longing  heart  in  all  the  centuries,  "  And  this  is  life 
eternal  that  they  might  know  thee,  the  only  true  God, 
and  Jesus  Christ  whom  thou  hast  sent." 

Like  the  earlier  missionaries,  these  men  laboured 
with  their  hands  for  their  support.  Dober  had  been  a 
potter  in  the  homeland,  but,  because  the  soil  did  not 
yield  material  for  his  work,  he  was  now  forced  to  seek 
other  employment.  Both  these  men  had  said  that  they 
would  willingly  themselves  become  slaves,  if  by  so 
doing  they  could  better  reach  the  bondservants  of  the 
fields.  And  the  unfeigned  love  of  the  labourers  won 
the  hearts  of  these  down-trodden  folk.  Never  before 
had  they  realized  that  the  blessings  of  love  here  and  a 
heaven  beyond  were  for  the  dusky  slave  as  well  as  for 
the  white  master.  Under  the  kindly  ministrations  of 
the  Moravians,  the  negroes  came  to  hate  sin  and  long 
for  better  living. 

So  the  work  went  on  for  many  months,  until  the 
time  came  for  Nitschmann's  return  to  Germany.  On 
sailing,  he  left  to  his  fellow-labourer  a  small  sum 
which  he  had  been  able  to  save  from  his  earnings  as 
carpenter,  and  with  this  money  and  the  pittance  he 
could  gain  as  watchman  on  the  plantations,  Dober 
laboured  on  yet  many  months.^     When  he  was  recalled 

'  He  had  given  up  a  position  as  tutor  in  the  Governor's  family 
because  it  hindered  his  work  with  the  slaves. 


MORAVIAN  MISSIONS  275 

to  Germany  to  become  the  General  Elder  of  the  home 
church,  others  came  out  to  continue  the  work  so  splen- 
didly begun. 

The  story  of  these  Moravian  labourers  on  St, 
Thomas  and  on  St.  Croix  and  on  other  of  the  West 
Indian  Islands  is  a  record  of  hardship  and  persecution, 
of  simple  devotion  and  grand  heroism.  At  one  time 
the  missionaries  v^ere  imprisoned  by  hostile  planters, 
and  only  released  by  the  timely  arrival  of  Count  Zin- 
zendorf,  who  was  throughout  life  zealous  in  promoting 
the  growing  missionary  activities  of  his  church.  The 
plantation  owners  complained  that  the  negroes  were  be- 
coming better  Christians  than  they  were  themselves. 
Hurricanes  swept  over  the  island.  Drought  parched 
the  land.  On  St.  Croix  the  poison  rising  from  the 
dank  masses  of  tropic  growth  carried  away  nine  of  the 
Brethren  in  the  same  number  of  months.  Before  the 
mission  was  firmly  established,  fifty  men  and  women 
had  given  their  lives  for  the  negro.  "  The  West  In- 
dies," says  Mr.  Thompson,^  "  form  a  series  of  Mo- 
ravian cemeteries.  The  Brethren  knew  their  liabili- 
ties; they  met  them  calmly,  and  with  quiet  assurance 
fell  asleep  in  Jesus.  Other  churches  have  since  sent 
Christian  labourers  to  the  same  fields;  but  the  Mo- 
ravians were  the  first,  by  their  toil  and  by  their  graves, 
to  take  possession  of  these  islands  for  '  Him  who  shall 
have  dominion  from  sea  to  sea.'  " 

Love  at  last  conquered.  To  win  their  dark-faced 
hearers  these  men  were  willing  to  endure  all  suffering, 
and,  in  both  these  islands  and  on  Jamaica,  at  last 
reaped  an  abundant  harvest.  Weary  with  toil  in  the 
fields,  and  bent  with  age,  men  and  women  would  walk 
from  ten  to  fifteen  or  twenty  miles  to  hear  the  gospel 
* "  Moravian  Missions,"  A.  C.  Thompson. 


276  THE  PILGRIMS'  WATCH 

preached.  Even  the  planter  was  forced  to  acknowl- 
edge that  his  Christian  negroes  were  of  greater  money 
value  in  the  market  than  the  other  slaves. 

As  early  as  1580,  Surinam  was  visited  by  European 
ships.  In  the  next  century  settlements  were  made 
around  the  harbours  of  the  coast  by  adventurous  Neth- 
erlanders  and,  from  that  time  to  the  present,  trade 
has  flowed  back  and  forth  between  the  South  Ameri- 
can colony  and  the  home  country.  With  a  climate  ex- 
ceedingly trying  to  Europeans ;  with  native  Indians  of 
a  low  order  of  intelligence  and  almost  without  moral 
sense,  bound  by  revolting  superstitions  and  fetichism, 
revengeful  and  with  the  coming  of  the  white  man  the 
slaves  of  strong  drink;  with  a  widespread  system  of 
African  slavery;  with  the  wilder  parts  of  the  country 
given  over  to  the  Bush  negroes,  fugitive  slaves  from 
the  plantations ;  with  unfamiliar  languages  to  conquer 
and  distrust  of  trader  and  planter  to  overcome,  the 
pioneer  Moravian  missionaries,  Dahne  and  Giittner, 
sailed  for  Surinam  in  1735,  three  years  after  the  plant- 
ing of  the  first  West  Indian  mission.  Pilgerhut, 
"  Pilgrim's  Watch,"  on  the  Wironje,  in  British 
Guiana,  was  established  in  1738,  and  from  that  time 
lights  were  set  in  the  darkness.  Still  many  of  these 
stations,  planted  at  an  immense  cost  of  suffering  and 
life,  had  to  be  abandoned  through  persecution  or  pes- 
tilence, but  not  before  large  numbers  of  these  degraded 
Indians,  more  especially  of  the  Arawaks,  had  received 
the  gospel  with  gladness.  In  Surinam  the  missiona- 
ries laboured  with  success  among  the  Bush  negroes,  but 
because  of  the  climate  and  of  the  hostility  of  some  of 
the  negroes,  the  mission  was  at  length  abandoned,  and 
there  are  now  almost  no  traces  of  the  earlier  Chris- 
tianity. 


MORAVIAN  MISSIONS  277 

While  Herrnhut  and  her  daughter  churches  were 
sending  out  labourers  to  the  islands  of  the  tropics  and 
the  low,  forest-covered  shores  of  Guiana,  the  new 
lands  of  the  north,  destined  in  later  years  to  become 
the  home  of  many  United  Brethren  congregations, 
were  not  forgotten  by  the  Moravians.  In  the  story 
of  these  missions  there  are  two  outstanding  names — 
Christian  Henry  Rauch  and  David  Zeisberger.  The 
first  of  these  men  came  to  New  York  in  1740  to  labour 
among  the  Indians,  whose  condition,  moral  and  spir- 
itual, had  aroused  the  pity  of  Bishop  Spangenburg. 
With  the  message  of  a  Saviour's  love  and  power, 
Rauch  went  to  the  Indian  village  of  Shekomeko,  in 
what  is  now  Dutchess  County,  and,  before  two  years 
were  gone,  had  transformed  that  drunken  community 
into  a  God-fearing  village  with  a  church  of  thirty-one 
members.  But  the  traders  saw  the  hope  of  their  gains 
vanishing,  and  raised  an  outcry  against  Rauch  and  his 
fellow-labourers  on  the  ground  that  they  were  "  un- 
privileged teachers."  The  converts  were  removed  to 
Pennsylvania,  where,  near  Bethlehem,  they  founded 
the  village  of  Gnadenhiitten,  Tents  of  Grace,  the  first 
of  a  series  of  Christian  Indian  settlements. 

David  Zeisberger  was  born  in  1721,  in  a  village  of 
Moravia,  escaping  with  his  parents  to  Saxony  when 
still  a  small  lad.  Later  he  was  with  the  Moravians  in 
Georgia,  and  helped  in  the  building  of  Bethlehem.  It 
was  here  that  he  decided  to  give  himself  to  the  Indian. 
Thereafter  his  life  was  devoted  unwearyingly  to 
Christianizing  and  civilizing  the  dusky  dwellers  of  the 
forest.  In  the  misunderstandings  and  persecutions 
which  the  two  wars  of  the  eighteenth  century  brought 
to  his  converts,  Zeisberger  was  their  constant  friend 
and  counsellor,  besides  acting  in  the  capacity  of  me- 


278  THE  PILGRIMS'  WATCH 

diator  between  the  Indian  tribes  and  the  colonists, 
and  in  the  Revolution  turning  the  tide  of  war  in 
western  Pennsylvania.  At  Goschen,  in  the  Tusca- 
rawas Valley,  on  the  seventeenth  of  November,  1808, 
the  faithful  labourer  entered  into  rest,  after  having 
given  himself  for  nearly  seventy  years  to  "  his  brown 
brethren  "  of  the  forest,  as  he  fondly  called  his  Indian 
converts. 

The  record  of  Dr.  Van  der  Kemp's  heroic  labours 
in  South  Africa  and  the  romantic  experiences  of  Rob- 
ert and  Mary  Moffat  among  the  Bushmen  are  familiar 
enough  reading.  But  how  many  know  the  story  of 
the  first  Protestant  missionary  who  went  out  to  the 
Dark  Continent,  fifty-one  years  before  the  arrival  of 
the  learned  physician,  and  gathered  out  of  the  darkness 
a  Christian  church  which,  but  for  the  opposition  of 
supposedly  Christian  people,  would  have  opened  a 
broad  avenue  for  the  entrance  of  the  gospel  among 
the  Hottentots  of  South  Africa.  The  life  of  George 
Schmidt  is  worth  knowing.  His  preparation  for  the 
mission  field  was  gained  within  the  gloomy  walls  of  a 
Bohemian  prison,  where  the  chains  wore  heavily  upon 
him  for  six  long  years.  Safe  at  last  in  Herrnhut,  he 
heard  the  pleading  voice  of  the  far-away  African  in 
a  letter  of  appeal  received  by  the  Brethren  from  Eng- 
land. Perhaps  his  own  years  of  suffering  had  soft- 
ened his  heart  for  all  in  distress,  and  the  long  days  in 
prison  had  surely  made  the  presence  of  the  Christ  real 
to  him.  His  decision  was  soon  made,  but  before  he 
reached  the  Cape  his  faith  was  tried  to  the  utmost. 
The  clergymen  at  Amsterdam  who  examined  him  en- 
deavoured by  every  means  to  dissuade  him  from  his 
purpose,  and  for  a  weary  twelvemonth  he  was  made 
to  wait  in  their  city,  labouring  meanwhile  for  his  daily 


MORAVIAN  MISSIONS  279 

bread.  Nor  was  it  much  better  when  he  reached  Cape 
Town.  There  is  nothing  harder  to  bear  than  ridicule, 
even  when  one  knows  one  is  in  the  right.  The  Dutch 
of  South  Africa  were  little  enough  in  sympathy  with 
any  plan  to  aid  the  Hottentots,  whom  they  despised, 
and  whose  possessions  they  coveted.  Yet  these  na- 
tives had  trusted  them  freely,  and  would  have  entered 
into  friendly  relations  of  trade  with  them.  "  The  Hot- 
tentots came,  with  thousands  of  cattle  and  sheep,  close 
to  our  fort,"  wrote  a  governor  of  the  Dutch  colony. 
"  If  we  had  been  allowed,  we  had  opportunity  enough 
to  deprive  them  to-day  of  ten  thousand  head;  which, 
however,  if  we  obtain  orders  to  that  effect,  we  can  do  at 
any  time."  In  the  end  they  took  their  land  from  this 
helpless  folk,  and  slew  and  enslaved  whom  they  could. 

Alone  the  dauntless  Schmidt  went  forth  to  the  de- 
spised kraals  and,  little  by  little,  won  the  friendship 
and  the  trust  of  his  black  hearers.  Before  three  years 
had  passed,  we  see  him  baptizing  his  first  convert. 
Others  were  added  in  increasing  numbers.  Even  some 
of  the  Dutch  neighbours  were  stirred  by  his  preaching. 
Yet  the  hostility  of  those  to  whom  his  life  was  a  re- 
buke was  closely  following  him  and  would  soon  mean 
the  close  of  his  mission.  Longing,  not  discourage- 
ment, was  often  upon  him.  To  the  Brethren  he  wrote, 
"  I  stand  here  alone." 

Persecution  increasing,  he  was  at  last  forced  out 
of  the  colony  never  to  return.  Forty-two  years  later 
he  was  found  upon  his  knees  in  his  cottage  at  Niesky, 
whence,  praying  after  his  custom  for  his  beloved  Afri- 
cans, he  had  passed  into  the  presence  of  his  Lord. 
Only  a  little  time  after  his  death,  by  the  fallen  walls 
of  his  humble  home  in  Bavian's  Kloof  was  established 
the  second  Moravian  mission  in  South  Africa,  and 


280  THE  PILGRIMS'  WATCH 

that  a  permanent  one.  Today  this  scene  of  unfinished 
labour  and  fulfilled  prayer  is  known  from  its  marvel- 
lous transformation  as  the  Vale  of  Grace/  and  who 
shall  say  that  the  pleadings  of  that  exiled  missionary 
did  not  mean  more  for  the  Dark  Continent  than  even 
his  continued  labours  there?  For  of  such  prayers  is 
builded  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

We  have  seen  that  when,  in  the  year  1731,  the  fate 
of  the  Greenland  mission  hung  in  the  balance,  Count 
Zinzendorf  came  into  touch  at  Copenhagen  with  bap- 
tized Eskimos  from  Godhaab.  About  the  same  time 
Christian  David  discovered  in  the  library  of  a  clergy- 
man, whom  he  was  visiting,  a  relation  of  the  Danish 
mission  in  the  North,  extracts  from  which  he  sent  to 
the  Brethren  at  Herrnhut.  Meanwhile,  the  first  Mo- 
ravian missionaries  went  out  to  the  West  Indies,  and 
the  needs  of  distant  races  stirred  the  hearts  of  many 
of  these  humble  villagers.  The  result  of  it  all  was  a 
memorable  decision  scene,  not  unlike  the  famous  Hay- 
stack prayer-meeting.  We  will  give  the  story  in  the 
words  of  one  of  the  missionaries.^ 

"  I  was  at  work  with  Frederic  Bonisch  on  the  new 
burying-ground,  called  the  Hutberg.  He  was  the  first 
person  I  acquainted  with  what  passed  in  my  mind,^ 
and  I  found  that  he  had  been  actuated  on  the  same 
occasion  with  the  same  desire  to  promote  the  salvation 
of  the  heathen.  We  conversed  with  simplicity  about 
it,  and  perceived  we  had  the  greatest  inclination  to  go 
to  Greenland,  but  we  knew  not  whether  we  ought  to 
look  upon  the  propension  that  had  taken  place  in  us  as 

^  Genadendal  (Gnadenthal),  the  seat  of  a  Moravian  theological 
seminary. 

2  Matthew  Stach. 

3  Desire  to  carry  the  gospel  to  lands  still  heathen. 


MORAVIAN  MISSIONS  281 

an  impulse  wrought  by  God,  which  we  should  give  no- 
tice of  to  the  congregation,  or  whether  we  should  wait 
till  a  call  was  given  us.  But,  as  we  were  both  of  one 
mind,  and  confidently  believed  that  our  Saviour's 
promise  would  be  verified  to  us:  If  two  of  you  shall 
agree  on  earth,  etc.,  therefore  we  retired  to  the  wood 
just  at  hand,  kneeling  down  before  Him,  and  begged 
Him  to  clear  up  our  minds  in  this  important  affair, 
and  lead  us  in  the  right  way.  Upon  this  our  hearts 
were  filled  with  uncommon  joy,  and  we  omitted  no 
longer  to  lay  our  mind  before  the  congregation  in 
writing." 

The  consent  of  Count  Zinzendorf  gained,  Matthew 
and  Christian  Stach,  accompanied  by  Christian  David, 
who  went  to  see  the  mission  established,  set  out  for 
Copenhagen  and  Greenland.  A  little  more  than  a 
year  later  the  missionaries  were  joined  by  John  Beck 
and  Frederic  Bonisch,  the  latter  at  the  time  of  the 
departure  of  the  Stachs  absent  from  Herrnhut  on  a 
commission  from  the  Church.  Let  us  remember  that 
these  men  were  humble  labourers,  unaccustomed  to  se- 
rious study.  Yet  in  those  first  years  they  learned 
enough  Danish  to  study  Eskimo  with  the  Egedes,  with 
whose  help  and  the  aid  of  the  natives  they  became  suf- 
ficiently proficient  in  the  Greenland  tongue  to  translate 
Scripture  and  hymns  even  more  idiomatically  than  Mr. 
Egede. 

When  discouragement  followed  discouragement,  the 
Brethren  refused  to  think  of  return.  "  By  God's 
grace,"  they  wrote,  "  we  will  not  despond,  but  keep 
the  Lord's  watch."  Six  years  passed  and  still  they 
had  made  no  impression  upon  the  Eskimos,  Other 
times,  however,  were  about  to  dawn. 

With  the  coming  of  the  June  days  a  company  of 


282  THE  PILGRIMS'  WATCH 

Eskimos  wandering  along  the  coast  from  the  south 
presented  themselves  at  the  mission  house,  where  John 
Beck  was  writing  out  a  translation  from  the  gospels. 
When  he  had  told  them  the  oft-repeated  story  of  the 
coming  of  the  Christ  to  earth  for  their  sakes — a  story 
which  had  so  often  fallen  on  heedless  ears  in  those 
long  six  years — one  of  the  Southlanders  came  up  to 
the  table  where  the  missionary  was  sitting,  and  in  a 
voice  in  which  there  was  at  last  genuine  emotion,  cried 
out,  "How  was  that?  Tell  me  that  again."  With 
tears  of  thankfulness,  the  patient  labourer  told  once 
more  all  that  wonderful  story  of  the  Master's  life  and 
of  the  Good  News  of  God's  love  that  he  had  declared. 
The  Eskimos  went  away  at  last,  but  a  little  more  than 
a  week  later  Kajarnak  was  back  again,  listening  even 
more  earnestly  than  before.  Very  simply  did  he  ac- 
cept the  love  so  freely  offered  and,  in  the  midst  of  sore 
temptations  and  many  dangers,  remained  true  to  his 
Christ  and  brought  his  family  and  friends  into  his  own 
great  joy. 

A  little  longer  and  Kajarnak  was  called  to  his 
heavenly  home.  His  going,  trustful  as  that  of  a  little 
child,  made  a  deep  impression  upon  the  hitherto  indif- 
ferent Greenlanders.  The  missionaries  gave  him  a 
Christian  burial.  "  At  the  grave  one  of  the  Danish 
missionaries  spoke  from  the  words,  '  I  am  the  Resur- 
rection and  the  Life,'  and  told  them  that  a  be- 
liever does  not  die,  but  at  his  departure  begins  truly 
to  live,  and  lives  forevermore.  Then  we  kneeled 
down  upon  the  snow  under  the  canopy  of  the  firma- 
ment, and  gave  back  to  our  Saviour  this  our  firstling."  ^ 

Steadily,  but  surely,  the  way  broadened  and  light- 
ened. One  and  another  heard  the  words  of  life  and 
*  David  Cranz,  "  History  of  Greenland." 


MORAVIAN  MISSIONS  283 

became  teachable  and  gentle.  From  their  summer 
wanderings  they  came  back  still  true  to  their  faith  and 
ready  to  win  others.  A  little  school  was  opened,  and 
the  children  were  at  last  willing  to  be  taught,  while 
among  the  older  converts  there  was  developed  a  new 
spirit  of  unity  by  the  bond  of  a  common  interest  in 
life's  deeper  meanings.  Constant  supervision  and  un- 
limited patience  would  be  necessary  yet  many  years, 
for  the  Eskimos  had  everything  to  learn  and  would 
be  led  into  vagaries  by  their  very  childishness,  but 
the  great  love  of  the  Brethren  was  at  last  winning  its 
reward. 

It  remains  to  tell  of  the  founding  of  Lichtenfels. 
The  new  settlement  was  made  on  an  island  off  Fisher's 
Inlet,  a  little  more  than  a  hundred  miles  south  of  New 
Herrnhut.  The  Danes  had  established  a  trading-post 
on  the  mainland  opposite,  and  many  Southlanders 
were  attracted  thither.  It  was  for  this  folk  that  the 
second  mission  was  founded.  Matthew  Stach  was 
given  direction  of  the  mission.  Three  years  later,  the 
work  prospering  abundantly,  a  church  was  built  and 
by  1762  there  was  a  congregation  of  one  hundred  and 
seventy  Greenlanders. 

Some  of  the  sweetest  hymns  used  in  our  church  serv- 
ices are  of  Moravian  origin.  Count  Zinzendorf  him- 
self leading  the  way  in  this  form  of  praise,  and  the 
children  and  older  converts  at  Lichtenfels  never  tired 
of  the  singing  hour.  Often,  too,  one  might  have  heard 
the  soft  voices  of  the  women  and  the  clear,  ringing 
voices  of  the  children  singing  about  their  home  tasks 
the  hymns  they  had  learned  of  the  Brethren,  while 
the  men  launched  their  kayaks  to  the  melody  of  Chris- 
tian song. 

The  first  of  the  missionaries  to  go  home  was  Fred- 


28*     '         THE  PILGRIMS'  WATCH 

eric  Bonisch.  Spending  his  last  hours  "  in  still  con- 
versations with  his  Lord,"  this  faithful  labourer  passed 
quietly  and  joyfully  to  receive  his  Master's  "  Well 
done  "  after  twenty-nine  years  of  service  for  the  men 
of  the  North.  The  work  that  he  and  his  comrades 
instituted  has  been  brought  to  a  successful  issue,  and 
to-day  Greenland  is  Christianized.  Only  a  few  hun- 
dred Eskimos  on  the  east  coast,  moving  down  from 
the  north,  are  still  pagan,  and  to  these  the  Danish 
Church  is  ministering.  In  1900  the  Moravians,  feel- 
ing that  their  work  in  Greenland  was  over,  and  desir- 
ing to  transfer  their  labourers  to  more  needy  fields, 
gave  over  their  missions  to  the  Danes.  But  the  rec- 
ord of  their  labours  remains  to  stimulate  the  Christian 
Church,  whatever  its  form  of  faith,  by  the  conquests 
which  a  few  humble  men  with  hearts  aglow  with  love 
for  the  Christ  were  able  to  win  at  a  time  when  Chris- 
tian missions  were  almost  unknown  in  the  Protestant 
world. 


VIII 
HERALDS  OF  A  NEW  DAY  IN  INDIA 

ZlEGENBALG,    PlUTSCHAU,    ScHULTZE,    ScHWARTZ 

"  None  but  Christ ;  none  but  Christ ;  none  but  Christ  hath  de- 
served this  bright,  this  precious  diadem,  India,  and  Jesus  shall 
have  it." — Keshab  Chandra  Sen. 

"  Ye  Christian  heralds  !  go,  proclaim 
Salvation  through  Immanuel's  name  ; 
To  distant  climes  the  tidings  bear, 
And  plant  the  rose  of  Sharon  there." 

NOT  SO  long  ago  the  painter  of  the  Renaissance 
period  was  worshipped  at  the  expense  of  the 
Primitive,  miracle  play  and  morality  were  for- 
gotten in  the  perfection  of  the  Elizabethan  drama,  and 
Luther  and  Calvin  overshadowed  the  valiant  forerun- 
ners of  the  Reformation.  With  widening  horizons  of 
thought  there  has  come  a  new  interest  in  art  and  his- 
tory's springtime,  and  now  we  delight  hardly  less  in 
drawing  from  the  oblivion  of  years  the  great  souls 
who  in  the  hour  before  the  dawn  mounted  the  untrav- 
elled  hill-slope  and  beheld  afar  off  the  first  glimmerings 
of  light.  In  the  annals  of  Protestant  missions  in 
Asia  we  find  such  men  as  these  in  Ziegenbalg  and 
Pliitschau  and  Griindler  and  Schwartz.  Through  the 
efforts  of  these  pioneers,  more  than  eighty  years  be- 
fore William  Carey  began  his  great  campaign  for 
Indian  missions,  there  was  erected  in  Tranquebar  the 

285 


286    HERALDS  OF  A  NEW  DAY  IN  INDIA 

first  Protestant  mission  chapel  to  be  dedicated  in  that 
great  Eastern  land.  Its  successor,  built  a  few  years 
later,  still  stands,  a  monument  of  those  brave  begin- 
nings. And  so  we  are  the  richer  for  this  chapter  of 
heroic  endeavour,  for,  although  no  one  denies  to  Carey 
the  honour  of  ushering  in  the  splendour  of  the  day, 
we  must  also  give  recognition  to  the  forerunners  of 
a  new  era  in  Indian  missions,  the  German  labourers 
of  the  eighteenth  century. 

Ruskin  has  somewhere  suggested  that  "  we  do  not 
enough  conceive  for  ourselves  that  variegated  mosaic 
of  the  world's  surface  which  a  bird  sees  in  its  migra- 
tion, that  difference  between  the  district  of  the  gentian 
and  of  the  olive  which  the  stork  and  the  swallow  see 
afar  off,  as  they  lean  upon  the  sirocco  wind."  And  then 
with  inimitable  power  he  conducts  his  readers  from  the 
Mediterranean,  "  with  all  its  ancient  promontories 
sleeping  in  the  sun,"  northward  over  "  the  pastures  of 
Switzerland,  and  poplar  valleys  of  France,  and  dark 
forests  of  the  Danube  and  Carpathians,"  over  "  mighty 
masses  of  leaden  rock  and  heathy  moor "  and  the 
broken  islands  of  northern  seas  to  the  regions  of 
"  polar  twilight." 

It  is  suggestive  of  broad  horizons,  this  half-imagi- 
nary journey  upon  which  Ruskin  has  taken  us,  suggest- 
ive of  the  manner  in  which  history  is  to  be  studied  and 
life  judged;  there  must  be  for  us  no  limitations  of 
local  barrier.  Let  us  suppose  ourselves,  then,  in  the 
years  before  the  Christian  era,  looking  down  from  the 
overspreading  heavens  upon  the  three  continents  of 
the  eastern  hemisphere.  In  the  vast  reaches  of  Eu- 
rope and  Asia  obscure  movements  of  restless  hordes 
forcing  their  way  slowly  through  mountain  defiles  and 
along  river  valleys  westward  and  southward  into  the 


< 

D 
O! 


u 
D 

U 

< 


ZIEGENBALG,  PLUTSCHAU,  SCHULTZE    287 

peninsulas  and  islands  of  Europe  and  over  the  passes 
of  the  snow-crowned  Himalayas  into  sun-loved  India; 
by  the  inundated  Nile  magnificent  buildings  rising  to 
the  sound  of  the  slave-driver's  lash;  on  other  river 
plains  to  the  eastward,  the  gardens  of  mighty  Babylon 
with  the  great  tower-temple  of  Bel  dominating  the 
city  on  the  northeast;  northward  again,  Nineveh  with 
its  libraries ;  between  these  cities  and  Egypt,  Palestine, 
the  battleground  of  antiquity;  all  of  these  in  turn  to 
feel  the  new  vigour  of  life  and  thought  coming  to  its 
own  where  the  galleys  of  the  Phoenicians  have  planted 
the  seeds  of  earlier  civilizations  in  the  quick  soil  of 
Greece  and  Italy.     There  are  no  barriers  staying  the 
march  of  these  armies  or  forbidding  the  mingling  of 
these  civilizations  through  trader  and  traveller.     Each 
is   within   the   vision   of   all   contemporaries.     Their 
world  is  the  world  about  the  Mediterranean.     Only 
dimly  do  they  know  the  land  of  spices  and  perfumes 
and  costly  fabrics  beyond  the  desert  and  the  moun- 
tains.    With  our  gift  of  omni-vision  we  are  permitted 
a  wider  view.     See,  beneath  us  stretch  the  lofty  masses 
of  the  Himalayas,  from  their  southern  base  extending 
broad  river  plains,  drained  by  the  five  great  rivers  of 
the  Panjab  and  their  myriad  tributaries;  and  farther 
southward  still  the  triangular  plateau  of  the  Deccan, 
bounded  east  and  west  by  the  Ghats.     Here,  too,  is 
strife,  the  conflict  of  long-time  owner  and  incoming 
Aryan.     For  centuries  the  struggle  continues,  while 
steadily  the  white  race  wins  its  way  southward  and 
forces  the  older  peoples  into  the  hills,   where  their 
descendants   live   to   this   day.     While   Babylon   and 
Nineveh  and  Susa  are  yet  filled  with  teeming  thou- 
sands, these  Aryan  folk  are  composing  Vedic  hymns, 
destined  for  more  than  thirty  centuries  to  be  revered 


g88     HERALDS  OF  A  NEW  DAY  IN  INDIA 

as  the  sacred  books  of  Brahmin  India.  Now  and 
again  the  tramp  of  armies  from  the  west  disturbs  this 
orient  land.  Alexander  the  Great  traverses  the  Pan- 
jab,  opening  a  broader  way  for  commercial  inter- 
course with  Western  nations.  The  greatness  of  Rome 
is  known  afar  off.  By  repeated  invasions  the  builders 
of  mosque  and  minaret  gain  here  a  foothold,  which 
they  still  retain.  The  one  impression  our  vision  leaves 
with  us?  India  is  a  land  of  ancient  civilization,  a 
non-Christian,  not  a  heathen  country. 

In  a  previous  chapter  we  have  followed  the  Portu- 
guese to  India  and  watched  the  Spanish  Jesuit  Xavier 
at  his  labours  in  Goa  and  on  the  Pearl  Coast.  In  1616 
the  first  Danish  ships  reached  Tranquebar,  which  five 
years  later  they  purchased  of  the  Rajah  of  Tanjore, 
erecting  a  strong  fort  on  land  overlooking  the  harbour. 
For  a  time  the  undertaking  prospered  and  Danish 
merchants  sent  home  rich  cargoes.  As  the  century 
waned,  however,  the  Dutch  were  more  and  more  con- 
trolling the  commerce  of  southern  India,  the  English 
were  strengthening  themselves  in  the  north,  and  the 
Danes  entered  upon  a  struggle  for  the  maintenance  of 
the  foothold  they  had  gained. 

In  the  last  year  of  the  century,  Frederick  the  Fourth 
succeeded  Christian  the  Fourth  as  king  of  Denmark, 
inheriting  the  long  struggle  with  Sweden.  Neverthe- 
less, the  Danish  sovereign  found  time  to  heed  com- 
plaints of  injustice  from  his  Indian  possessions,  and, 
understanding  the  low  ebb  of  morals  in  Tranquebar, 
sought  from  his  chaplain.  Dr.  Liitkens,  a  plan  for  bet- 
tering conditions  in  the  Danish  port  and  province. 
Dr.  Liitkens,  recently  come  from  Germany,  counted 
among  his  acquaintances  men  of  the  Francke  type, 
and  was  ready,  therefore,  with  suggestions  for  a  be- 


ZIEGENBALG,  PLUTSCHAU  289 

ginning  of  Christian  missions  in  Danish  India.  At  the 
king's  command,  he  set  about  discovering  men  equal 
to  the  task,  and,  finding  none  of  suitable  training  and 
consecration  in  Denmark,  chose  two  Germans,  Bar- 
tholomew Ziegenbalg  and  Henry  Pliitschau,  both  of 
whom  had  studied  at  Halle  under  Dr.  Francke. 

Ziegenbalg  was  born  in  a  little  town  ^  near  Dresden, 
June  4,  1683.  Like  so  many  men  of  consecration,  he 
had  a  noble  mother,  who  on  her  deathbed  bequeathed 
her  children  her  greatest  treasure,  a  love  for  the  Bible 
as  one  of  the  first  sources  of  inspiration  for  high  liv- 
ing. During  a  few  months  spent  at  Halle,  the  young 
Ziegenbalg  won  the  friendship  of  Professor  Francke. 
Thoughtful  by  nature  and  fond  of  music  and  revery, 
he  was  withal  practical  and  resourceful.  One  hardly 
needs  more  facts  than  these  to  explain  his  later  suc- 
cessful leadership  in  India's  first  Protestant  mission. 
Of  Pliitschau  less  is  known,  and  largely  on  account  of 
ill  health  he  returned  to  Europe  at  the  end  of  the 
first  five  years'  service. 

The  two  men  sailed  from  Copenhagen  in  November, 
1705,  arriving  at  Tranquebar  the  following  July. 
Here  they  were  met  with  indifference  and  even  perse- 
cution. They  had  indeed  been  treated  as  fanatics 
from  the  first,  and,  although  brought  to  Denmark  by 
royal  command  and  proceeding  upon  their  mission 
under  court  patronage,  were  still  treated  contemptu- 
ously by  the  practical  Danes,  who  regarded  their  hopes 
as  chimeras  impossible  of  realization.  "  If  God  will 
be  pleased  to  grant  us  the  conversion  of  but  one  soul 
among  the  heathen,"  they  said,  "  we  $hall  think  our 
voyage  sufficiently  rewarded." 

Immediately  on  reaching  Tranquebar,  the  missiona- 

J  Pulsnitz. 


290     HERALDS  OF  A  NEW  DAY  IN  INDIA 

ries  set  themselves  to  the  mastery  of  Tamil,  one  of 
the  principal  Dravidian  languages  of  southern  India. 
But  the  way  was  full  of  difficulties,  for  the  people 
feared  that  the  secrets  of  their  faith  might  be  revealed 
if  they  taught  these  strangers  the  Tamil  language,  and 
the  Danish  merchants  and  officials  were  pursuing  the 
missionaries  daily  with  petty  persecutions.  We  see 
these  undaunted  labourers  seated  on  the  earth  floor, 
patiently  tracing  Tamil  words  in  the  sand  with  the 
children  of  a  small  native  school.  To  obtain  a  key  to 
the  vocabulary  which  they  were  gaining  in  the  In- 
dian school,  they  persuaded  a  young  man  of  the  Mala- 
bar coast  to  live  with  them.  But  the  delicacy  of  their 
situation  becomes  apparent  when  we  read  that  at  the 
end  of  two  years  their  guest  was  made  prisoner  by 
the  native  prince  and  when  released  forced  to  remain 
in  exile.  Despite  hindrances,  however,  they  became 
proficient  in  the  Tamil  language  and  Ziegenbalg  ac- 
quainted himself  with  the  rich  Tamil  literature. 
Among  his  first  labours  was  the  preparation  of  a  dic- 
tionary and  a  grammar,  the  latter  written  in  Latin 
and  printed  at  Halle. 

Ziegenbalg  and  Plutschau  had  not  been  long  in 
India  when  they  opened  a  school  for  poor  children — 
Tamils  and  Portuguese,  whom  they  supported  and 
educated  at  the  expense  of  the  mission.  Meanwhile 
Ziegenbalg  preached  in  both  languages  and,  in  1707, 
ten  years  after  landing,  baptized  five  slaves,  their  first 
converts.  Three  months  later,  they  dedicated  a  small 
chapel,  the  precursor  of  the  beautiful  Jerusalem 
Church,  still  used  as  the  mission  church  of  Tranquebar. 
The  expenses  of  the  mission  were  now  greatly  en- 
larged, and  help  from  home  was  slow  in  coming, 
while  a  sum  of  gold  pieces  sent  from  the  Danish  gov- 


ZIEGENBALG,  PLUTSCHAU  291 

ernment  was  lost  in  the  harbour  of  Tranquebar 
through  the  carelessness  of  sailors.  During  those 
years  of  persecution  Pliitschau  suffered  arrest  and 
Ziegenbalg  imprisonment  on  the  charge  of  stirring  up 
the  people  to  rebellion/  Success  and  discouragement 
struggled  together  for  the  mastery.  At  last,  in  1709, 
when  the  resources  of  the  mission  had  reached  their 
lowest  ebb,  a  ship  arrived  from  Denmark  with  funds 
and  a  re-enforcement  of  labourers,  among  whom  was 
John  Ernst  Griindler.  About  this  time,  also,  the 
English  Society  for  promoting  Christian  Knowledge 
sent  an  offering  of  money  and  the  gift  of  a  printing- 
press,  a  font  of  Roman  and  Italic  letters,  and  a  number 
of  copies  of  the  New  Testament.  From  Halle  they 
received  a  font  of  Tamil  characters. 

In  1714  Ziegenbalg  visited  Europe.  Pliitschau  had 
already  returned  home,  where,  in  a  parish  of  Germany, 
he  remained  a  beloved  pastor  for  thirty  years,  all  the 
while  working  and  praying  for  the  success  of  the  mis- 
sion in  far-away  Tranquebar.  During  the  months  of 
his  furlough  Ziegenbalg  told  the  thrilling  story  of  his 
labours  at  the  court  of  Denmark  and  to  large  congre- 
gations in  Denmark  and  Germany  and  England. 
While  in  Europe  he  was  united  in  marriage  with 
Dorothea  Salzmann,  a  woman  every  way  fitted  for 
life  on  the  mission  field. 

On  his  return  to  India  Ziegenbalg  found  his  transla- 
tion of  the  New  Testament  into  Tamil  just  come  from 
the  press.  With  true  German  thoroughness,  he  had 
delayed  beginning  the  translation  until  he  understood 
the  language  in  its  finer  shades  of  meaning.  Other 
difficulties  had  arisen,  also,  so  that  the  book  was  not 
published  until  he  had  been  nine  years  in  India.  The 
^The  charge  was  of  course  unfounded. 


292     HERALDS  OF  A  NEW  DAY  IN  INDIA- 

remaining  years  of  his  life  were  spent  in  preparing  a 
translation  of  the  Old  Testament,  which  he  carried 
so  far  as  Ruth,  in  work  on  a  grammar  of  the  Tamil 
tongue,  and  in  translation  of  hymns  for  the  church 
services.  But  the  end  was  near.  Failing  health  had 
forced  him  to  leave  Halle  in  his  student  days,  and  the 
climate  of  India  and  his  unceasing  labours  had  done 
the  rest.  On  the  twenty-third  of  February,  17 19, 
India's  first  Protestant  missionary  went  home  to  his 
reward,  having  opened  the  way  for  conquests  whose 
end  we  see  not  even  now. 

Bartholomew  Ziegenbalg  possessed  many  of  the 
qualities  essential  to  success  on  the  mission  field, — 
steadfastness  of  purpose,  zeal,  initiative,  acumen,  fear- 
lessness, mental  quickness,  and  consecration.  To  a 
large  extent  he  employed  methods  still  in  use,  many 
of  which  are,  after  all,  only  modified  forms  of  the 
methods  of  the  earlier  mediaeval  missionary  labourers, 
but  to-day  enriched  by  the  marvellous  discoveries  of 
a  new  era  of  thought  and  of  scientific  research, 

A  little  more  than  a  year  after  Ziegenbalg's  death, 
Griindler  also  was  taken  from  the  mission.  In  the 
few  years  which  he  had  spent  in  India,  he  had  proved 
a  tower  of  strength,  and  until  the  coming  of  Schwartz 
his  place  was  not  adequately  filled.  Meanwhile,  in 
1719,  Benjamin  Schultze  arrived  from  Denmark  with 
two  companions,  and  soon  increased  the  number  of 
schools  to  twenty-five,  many  of  these  offering  educa- 
tion to  Mohammedan  children.  He  completed  the 
translation  of  the  Old  Testament  begun  by  Ziegenbalg. 
From  Tranquebar  he  carried  the  gospel  into  English 
territory,  founding  a  mission  at  Madras.  Under  his 
direction  evangelistic  work  was  also  carried  on  in  the 
province  of  Tanjore  by  native  catechists,  who  came 


"^^nu/Kf'  ^    ^y2..^_^ 


SCHULTZE,  SCHWARTZ  293 

into  conflict  with  Roman  Catholic  missionaries.  At 
the  end  of  twenty-four  years  filled  with  energetic  la- 
bours, Schultze  returned  to  Europe  in  1743.  Ac- 
cording to  the  statistics  of  1747  there  had  been  bap- 
tized (including  infants)  eight  thousand  and  fifty-six 
persons,  over  five  thousand  of  whom  were  still  living. 
Although  the  missionaries  made  the  mistake  of  giving 
pecuniary  aid  to  some  of  the  catechumens,  especially 
those  from  outside  the  city,  still,  on  the  whole,  the 
missionaries  were  careful  not  to  receive  into  the  Church 
those  who  "  were  defective  in  knowledge  of  the  gospel, 
or  whose  life  did  not  correspond  with  their  profes- 
sion. 

The  latter  half  of  the  eighteenth  century  in  India 
was  brightened  by  the  presence  of  one  of  the  most 
devoted  missionaries  of  all  time.  For  many  years  the 
memory  of  kindly  "  Father  Schwartz  "  rested  like  a 
benediction  upon  all  that  southern  country.  A  man 
of  sterling  character,  a  lover  of  all  men,  and  especially 
of  the  little  children,  he  laboured  in  Tranquebar  and 
Trichinopoli  and  Tan j ore  for  nearly  fifty  years,  and, 
dying,  bequeathed  his  savings  to  the  mission. 

Christian  Friedrich  Schwartz  was  born  in  1726  in 
the  ancient  town  of  Sonnenburg,  Prussia,  where  of  old 
the  Knights  of  St.  John  held  high  festival,  and  where 
Benjamin  Schultze  had  grown  to  manhood.  A  pic- 
ture of  the  good  mother,  about  to  cross  the  bourne  of 
life,  consecrating  her  infant  child  to  missionary  serv- 
ice; a  record  of  the  lad's  studies  at  Sonnenburg  and 
Kustrin;  a  glimpse  of  Schwartz  the  youth  learning  the 
Tamil  language  at  Halle,  that  he  may  assist  in  the  cor- 
rection of  proofs  from  the  Halle  press;  finally,  the 
father's  brave  acceptance  of  his  son's  plea  to  be  al- 
lowed service  in  far-away  India — permission  granted 


294,    HERALDS  OF  A  NEW  DAY  IN  INDIA 

through  remembrance  of  the  mother's  last  wish — then 
a  port  of  India  on  a  July  day  of  1750  and  a  meeting 
of  volunteers,  buoyantly  hopeful,  with  veteran  labour- 
ers in  a  difficult  field;  after  that  a  period  of  forty- 
eight  years  spent  in  "  doing  and  pointing  to  that  which 
is  right  "  with  all  the  earnestness  of  a  thoroughly  sin- 
cere nature, — such  is  the  story  of  this  Pietist  mis- 
sionary. 

During  the  first  years  at  Tranquebar,  Schwartz 
strove  to  make  himself  master  of  "  the  religious  views, 
social  conditions,  history,  habits,  and  entire  circle  of 
the  mental  associations  of  the  people."  He  founded 
schools  and  directed  many  catechists,  whom  he  gath- 
ered each  morning  for  religious  instruction  and  lessons 
of  patience  and  forbearance.  From  the  inspiration  of 
his  noble  presence  they  went  forth  into  the  surround- 
ing country,  "  trying,"  he  was  accustomed  to  say, 
"  whether  they  might  not  be  so  happy  as  to  bring  some 
of  their  wandering  brethren  into  the  way  of  truth." 
In  the  evening  they  returned  to  him  with  a  report  of 
all  their  labours,  and  "  the  day  closed  as  it  began,  with 
meditation  and  prayer." 

With  all  his  labours  in  the  Danish  province  of 
Tranquebar,  Schwartz  yet  found  time  to  travel  much 
in  other  parts  of  southern  India  and  in  Ceylon.  In 
1767  he  visited  Trichinopoli,  where  he  entered  the 
service  of  the  English  Society  for  Promoting  Chris- 
tian Knowledge.  His  last  years  were  spent  in  Tan- 
jore,  one  of  the  oldest  and  richest  cities  of  southern 
India.  To  a  student  like  Schwartz,  the  city  must  have 
spoken  eloquently  of  the  powerlessness  of  civilization 
without  Christianity.  For  centuries  Tanjore  had 
been  a  Hindu  capital;  it  possessed  a  temple  perhaps 
the  finest  in  India,  and  built  in  the  century  that  saw 


SCHWARTZ  295 

the  coming  of  the  Normans  into  England.  Here  lit- 
erature and  art  had  flourished,  and  beautiful  and  costly- 
handiwork  was  produced.  Nature  had  lavished  her 
wealth  upon  it.  Everything  was  granted  but  the 
knowledge  that  leads  to  high  moral  and  spiritual  ideals, 
and,  because  this  was  lacking,  the  city  of  beauty  and 
wealth  had  become  the  home  of  vice  and  misery  and 
sorrow. 

His  quiet  courtesy  and  tact,  his  utter  trustworthi- 
ness, and  his  great  heart  of  compassion  made  Schwartz 
a  prominent  figure  in  both  European  and  Indian  cir- 
cles. He  was  called  to  preach  before  the  rajah  of 
Tanjore,  whose  friendship  he  gained  and  kept.  Just 
before  the  latter's  death,  he  called  Schwartz  to  him 
and  would  have  given  him  the  guardianship  of  his 
adopted  son,  Serfoji,  a  lad  of  nine  years.  Schwartz 
wisely  refused  the  responsibility,  but  promised  to  coun- 
sel and  befriend  the  young  prince — a  promise  nobly 
kept  and  nobly  rewarded.  Among  both  natives  and 
English,  the  veteran  missionary  was  known  for  his 
strict  fidelity  and  honour.  When  Hyder  Ali  was 
threatening  the  Carnatic,  and  the  English  desired  to 
send  an  envoy  to  his  camp,  Hyder  replied,  "  Send  me 
the  Christian.  I  can  trust  him."  Again,  when  Tan- 
jore was  threatened  by  an  army  in  the  rear  and,  the 
rajah's  credit  having  been  destroyed  by  his  dobashes, 
the  inhabitants  faced  starvation,  the  Indian  ruler  sum- 
moned Schwartz  and  empowered  him  to  purchase  pro- 
visions from  the  farmers.  With  all  haste  the  mis- 
sionary despatched  agents  throughout  the  surrounding 
country,  and  shortly  grain  and  cattle  were  coming  into 
the  city  in  abundance,  for  if  "  the  missionary  is  re- 
sponsible for  payment,  we  shall  not  be  disappointed." 
Splendid  tribute  to  the  character  of  Schwartz.     In  the 


296    HERALDS  OF  A  NEW  DAY  IN  INDIA 

light  of  such  qualities  we  may  even  forget  his  great 
mistake  in  over-leniency  on  the  caste  question.  In 
judging  the  attitude  of  the  German  Pietists  toward  the 
caste  problem,  let  us  remember,  too,  that  they  were 
trained  in  Imperial  Germany  and  in  the  age  before  the 
social  awakening  which  followed  the  French  revolu- 
tion. They  could  not  estimate  conditions  as  would  the 
missionary  from  democratic  twentieth-century  Eng- 
land or  America.  Integrity,  absolute  uprightness  in 
word  and  life,  however,  has  appealed  to  all  peoples  in 
all  ages,  and  he  of  whom  it  can  be  said,  as  of  Schwartz, 
"  if  he  has  given  his  word,  we  may  rest  content,"  is 
blessed  beyond  measure. 

To  his  sterling  character  Schwartz  added  a  sympa- 
thetic and  loving  nature.  He  would  preach  the  love 
of  Christ,  it  is  said,  until  he  wept,  and  then  it  was  not 
long  before  his  hearers  were  converted.  When  war 
clouds  were  hovering  over  the  city,  he  bought  rice, 
which  he  later  distributed  to  famine  sufferers.  In 
Tranquebar  he  erected  a  row  of  small  houses  for 
widows,  and  in  Tanjore  his  home  was  given  over  to 
orphans,  while  he  contented  himself  with  the  plainest 
lodgings  and  fare.  He  served  not  only  the  people  of 
India,  but  the  English  soldiers  of  the  garrison,  and  it 
was  through  the  Governor  of  the  Fort  that  his  chapel 
at  Tanjore  was  built. 

Like  others  before  and  since,  Schwartz  was  not  al- 
lowed to  proceed  in  his  labours  unhindered.  The 
Jesuits  of  the  province  of  Tanjore  sought  to  prejudice 
the  people  against  his  work,  telling  them  half-truths, 
always  a  most  dangerous  weapon.  Most  disappoint- 
ing of  all,  his  work  was  misunderstood  in  England 
and  misrepresented  in  the  House  of  Commons,  so  that 
he  was  at  the  necessity  of  vindicating  and  defending 


1 


M. 


I  i . 


Mr.vii;  ;;;,-;•,    C  1 1  U  l^TIA.N    I'lC  i:ni:ii  1  (      sWAirr'/ 

r..il    N     AT    '-, 'N  N  r.N  HI' !.'<..    OK    Nlll 


M  \l;  k    I  \     11  i  K    KIM.lHlM   or   n;i; 


■niK    _■■'  '  OK  oc  1(11'-  i-:h    r  jo. 

A.NP   iiirn  AT  TA.N.ioii  i:  'nii'.   r     oi-  kt.im!  w  \l.^    i"')'., 

I  \  TiiK   7J   ^i;\K    oi    ;ii'-  AGi: 

oi.voiKti  ntoM   111^   KAKi.Y    .\rA.sn(H>n  'lo   ijii    ori'iCK  ok 

-     '"^.  M  I^!^IONAK\     IN      I'm:     KA'^T, 

"I'HK    StM  ll.AH  ri'"!'     OK    Ills     sKKI   ATU)>»     Tf)    "rUA'r    OF 

Tin:     KlKS-r    rHKA<IlKUS     Ol'    TIIK     C.O'^IM'.l.. 

IMIODl'C  l:U    IN     IIIM     A    FKC.L'I.IAU     H  K  S  i:  M  K  I .  \  N  1 1:   TO 

TIIK   siMTi.i:    SA^;^•ri^^YOl     rni: 

AI'OSTIM.IC     ni.'.K.M  TK.K. 
Ills     NATrUAl.    \J\'\(nY     WON      rUK     AKFEC'ltON 

AS  HIS  I'NspoTTini   ritonrrv   anu  ;i mr-i    ok  i.irn 

AI.IKK     C  OM  MAN  l)i:i)    T  I  1 1 

in;\T:KKNC  K  oi"  thk 

;  llltlSTIA.N,   MAHOMKDAN,  AND    HIMM.', 

I-OH    M)\I:RKU.N    FKINCKs,  HINDU,  and   MAIlOiVIEDAN. 

bhl.(:( TKD    TIUS    HUMBJ.E    I'ASTOR 

AS  ■nil-:     Ml-lDll'M    OK    FOI.ITILAI.    NKGOCIATION    'WITH 

-J  HE  Hunisii  govern"Si<^nt 

AND  THE    VKltY    MAKB   .K    THAT    HERE    RECORDS    HIS   MUTUES 
^^-'  ^  WAS    RAISED   by' 

THE    LIBERAL    AKFECTION    AMD   ESTEEM   OF  TKE 
RA.IA    OF   TAN.TOUF. 

MAHA    llAJA    SJHFO.IKK 


SCHWARTZ    MONUxMENT   AND   INSCRIPTION,    TANJORE 


WILLIAM  CAREY  SQT 

the  mission.  In  this  opposition,  however,  he  was  only 
anticipating  Carey  and  his  associates. 

On  the  thirteenth  of  February,  1798,  in  the  presence 
of  his  co-workers,  Schwartz,  the  Primitive  Christian, 
as  his  friends  loved  to  call  him,  passed  into  the  pres- 
ence of  his  Master.  He  was  buried  in  the  mission 
church  at  the  Fort.  Over  his  grave  the  rajah  Serfoji 
erected  a  noble  monument,  designed  by  the  English 
sculptor,  Flaxman,  and  representing  the  good  mis- 
sionary "  on  his  death-bed,  Gericke  standing  behind 
him,  the  rajah  at  his  side,  two  native  attendants,  and 
three  children  around  his  bed."  ^ 

To  return  to  England.  Six  years  before  Schwartz 
went  to  Trichinopoli,  in  a  village  of  Northamptonshire 
was  born  William  Carey,  the  Founder  of  Modern  Mis- 
sions. Those  days  spent  in  making  shoes  to  the  glory 
of  God,  and  with  a  Latin  grammar  by  the  workman's 
side,  the  long  rambles  in  field  and  wood  which  rendered 
possible  his  valuable  botanical  observations  in  India, 
the  opening  of  the  heart  to  new  life  and  love  in  a  Dis- 
senting Chapel,  and  the  earnest  seeking  to  help  men 
into  acquaintanceship  with  the  Christ — all  that  inspir- 
ing story  has  been  told  again  and  again,  and,  because 
Carey  and  Martyn  belong  to  the  nineteenth  century 
and  the  period  of  foundation-builders,  we  shall  touch 
only  upon  those  events  which  gave  to  India  the  Seram- 
pore  Trio. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Journal  of  David  Brainerd 
was  one  of  the  factors  turning  the  thought  of  William 
Carey  to  the  great  non-Christian  world.  To  another 
American,  Jonathan  Edwards,  belongs  the  honour  of 
having  written  the  pamphlet  leading  to  the  first  series 
of  missionary  prayer-meetings  ever  held  in  England, 
1  Appendix  I,  Note  7. 


298     HERALDS  OF  A  NEW  DAY  IN  INDIA 

The  Rev.  Andrew  Fuller  reading  "  A  Humble  attempt 
to  Promote  Agreement  and  Visible  Union  of  God's 
People  in  Extraordinary  Prayer  for  the  Revival  of  Re- 
ligion and  the  Advancement  of  Christ's  Kingdom  on 
Earth";  the  Northamptonshire  Baptist  Association 
recommending  churches  to  set  apart  the  first  Monday 
evening  of  each  month  for  prayer  that  God  will  open 
the  way  for  the  gospel  in  non-Christian  lands;  Mr. 
Fuller  publishing  "  The  Gospel  Worthy  of  All  Ac- 
ceptation ";  William  Carey  preaching  in  the  little  town 
of  Moulton  and  pondering  and  praying  over  the  great 
things  to  which  he  was  to  give  his  life;  his  attempt  to 
bring  the  thought  of  this  responsibility  for  the  fulfil- 
ment of  Christ's  last  command  before  the  ministers' 
meeting  at  Northampton,  and  the  rebuke  which  he 
suffered ;  his  intrepid  answer  in  the  pamphlet  entitled, 
"  A  Humble  Inquiry," — such  are  the  links  in  the  chain 
of  events  leading  to  the  final  decision  meetings  at  Not- 
tingham and  Kettering. 

Andrew  Fuller  had  said,  "  We  pray  for  the  con- 
version and  salvation  of  the  world,  and  yet  neglect  the 
ordinary  means  by  which  those  ends  have  been  used 
to  be  accomplished."  It  was  for  Carey  to  bring  the 
answer.  On  the  thirty-first  of  May,  1792,  Carey 
preached  his  memorable  sermon  on  Isaiah  54 :  2,  3,  his 
argument,  "  Expect  great  things  from  God ;  attempt 
great  things  for  God,"  becoming  the  battle-cry  for  all 
after  missionary  advance.  The  bugle-notes  of  the 
reveille  had  sounded,  but  the  soldiers,  unaccustomed  to 
obedience,  were  only  aroused  by  the  summons,  not 
awakened.  As  the  Assembly  was  moving  to  adjourn, 
the  despairing  preacher  caught  Andrew  puller  by  the 
arm  and  pleaded,  "  Are  you  going  to  do  nothing  after 
all  ?  "     The  tide  was  turned,  and  it  was  voted  before 


WILLIAM  CAREY  299 

the  next  meeting  to  consider  plans  for  the  formation 
of  a  foreign  missionary  society. 

The  visitor  to  Kettering  is  still  shown  the  room  in 
which,  on  the  second  of  October,  twelve  ministers  met 
to  organize  the  Particular  Baptist  Missionary  Society 
for  Propagating  the  Gospel  among  the  Heathen.  At 
this  meeting  there  was  little  of  the  excitement  which 
attended  the  formation  of  the  London  Society.  No 
throngs  gathered  to  express  their  approval  of  the  new 
measure.  The  coldness  and  indifference  was  yet  un- 
broken, and  months  passed  before  the  Society  could 
send  Carey  to  India.  Even  when  he  reached  Calcutta, 
he  faced  well-nigh  insuperable  difficulties.  The  East 
India  Company  was  bitterly  hostile.  Dr.  John 
Thomas,  with  whom  Carey  was  associated,  had  in 
earlier  years  lost  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the 
better  citizens  of  Calcutta,  and  now  wasted  the  small 
sum  at  the  disposal  o"f  the  missionaries.  Carey  be- 
came overseer  on  an  indigo  plantation,  at  the  same 
time  giving  himself  to  the  study  of  Bengali.  So  six 
years  passed.  Strangely  enough,  it  was  the  year  1800 
that  saw  the  first  period  of  discouragement  and  de- 
ferred hope  brought  to  a  close  by  entrance  upon  that 
long  friendship  and  co-laboration  which  gave  to  the 
missionaries  the  name  of  the  Serampore  Trio.  Early 
the  next  year,  Carey  was  appointed  professor  of  Ben- 
gali and  Sanskrit  in  the  recently  opened  Fort  William 
college,^  a  position  he  held  for  thirty  years,  all  the 
while  giving  substantial  aid  to  the  Mission  from  his 
liberal  salary,  besides  performing  extraordinary  lit- 
erary labours. 

With  the  nineteenth  century  began  a  new  era  in  the 
history  of  Christian  missions.     To  the  earlier  labour- 

1  Calcutta. 


300     HERALDS  OF  A  NEW  DAY  IN  INDIA 

ers  it  had  been  given  to  see  the  promise  only  afar  off. 
They  were  voices  calling  in  the  darkness  of  the  night 
and  v^^aiting  until  the  day  should  break  and  the  shad- 
ows flee  away.  And  their  prayers  were  answered  at 
length,  as  such  prayers  have  been  in  all  time.  As  we 
lay  down  the  annals  of  the  first  period  of  Protestant 
missions,  we  are  watching  the  coming  of  the  light. 
Yet  a  few  years  and  the  splendour  of  the  day  will 
have  come  from  the  snows  of  Lebanon  to  the  cherry 
blooms  of  Japan,  over  awakening  continents  and 
among  the  islands  of  the  sea. 

"  Out  of  the  shadows  of  night 
The  world  rolls  into  light ; 
It  is  daybreak  everywhere." 


APPENDIX  I 

NOTES   ON  TEXT 

Note  i,  page  49. — Christianit'y  in  Britain.  As  with  other  coun- 
tries of  the  Empire,  Christianity  in  Britain  gradually  won  its  way 
through  the  influence  of  merchant  and  trader  and  soldier.  In  314. 
three  British  bishops  attended  the  Council  of  Aries,  and  there  is 
every  reason  for  believing  that  a  large  and  organized  Church  was 
built  up  in  Roman  Britain.  When  the  Britons  were  forced 
westward  by  the  Saxons,  their  Church  lived  on  among  the  wilds 
of  Cornwall  and  Wales  and  Strathclyde,  though  suffering  much 
from  the  troublous  times. 

Note  2,  page  78. — The  first  scene  of  this  chapter  is  based  upon 
a  statement  in  Neander's  history  that  Severinus  was  accustomed 
to  refer  to  a  vision  or  experience  which  led  him  from  his  hermit's 
life  in  the  desert  back  to  the  common  mart  and  the  service  of 
suffering  humanity.  The  remainder  of  the  chapter  is  strictly 
historical. 

Note  3,  page  116. — Twenty-two  years  later  Hilda  became  di- 
rector of  a  Christian  school  at  Hartlepool  and  in  658  founder  of 
a  double  monastery  at  Whitby  (Streanaeshalch),  which  she  ruled 
until  her  death  in  680.  By  her  wise  counsels,  her  love  of  peace, 
her  large  views,  and  her  insistence  upon  a  spiritual  Christianity, 
seen  in  her  support  of  the  Celtic  Church  at  the  Synod  of  Whitby 
in  664,  she  exerted  a  splendid  influence  for  good  upon  the  Church 
of  her  day.  At  a  critical  time  her  words  were  a  force  in  creating 
sanity  of  thought.  Her  power  as  a  Christian  teacher  was  hardly 
less  great,  and  no  fewer  than  five  bishops,  among  them  John  of 
Beverly,  went  forth  from  her  school  at  Whitby.  She  encouraged 
the  poet  Csedmon,  "  the  Milton  of  Anglo-Saxon  literature,"  who 
was  a  lay  brother  of  the  monastery,  and  whose  life  as  related 
by  Bede  is  one.  of  the  most  interesting  bits  of  Northumbrian 
history. 

Note  4,  page  201. — French  Protestant  Missions.  The  French 
Government  practically  closes  its  colonies  to  missionaries  of  other 
nationalities.  This  brings  a  heavy  responsibility  upon  the  small 
Protestant  Church  in  France,  which  for  this  reason  invites  con- 
tributions from  those  churches  not  allowed  to  labour  in  the  French 
colonies.  "  Besides  the  work  already  undertaken  and  needing  to 
be  supported,"  they  write,  "  there  are  new  mission  fields  yet  to  be 
ploughed.  In  Asia,  there  is  the  whole  of  French  Indo-China,  with 
twenty  million  inhabitants.    In  Africa,  French  Guinea,  the  Ivory 

301 


302  APPENDIX 

Coast,  Dahomey,  the  greater  part  of  the  French  Congo,  and  above 
all  the  Sudan,  making  a  total  of  fifty  million  subjects  of  France 
who  are  still  waiting  for  the  gospel."  The  address  of  the  Paris 
Society  is  Societe  des  Missions  Evangeliques,  102  Boulevard 
Arago,  Paris,  France. 

Note  5,  page  228. — Missions  among  Mohammedans.  The 
United  Free  Church  of  Scotland  at  Sheikh  Othman,  near  Aden, 
in  Arabia;  Dutch  Reformed  Church  (American)  at  Busrah, 
Bahrein,  and  Muscat  on  east  coast  of  Arabia;  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society  (English)  in  Palestine,  Persia,  Egypt,  on  the 
upper  Niger,  and  at  Bagdad;  United  Presbyterian  at  Assiut, 
Egypt;  the  Foreign  Mission  Board  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of 
America  in  Syria;  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for 
Foreign  Missions  (Congregationalist)  in  the  Ottoman  Empire; 
a  large  work  by  the  Rhenish  Missionary  Society  (German)  in 
Java  and  among  the  Battaks  of  Sumatra.  In  the  last  named 
mission  there  are  nearly  seven  thousand  converts. 

Note  6,  page  261. — Blond  Eskimos.  Prof.  Vilhjalmar  Stefans- 
son,  of  the  American  Museum  of  Natural  History,  just  returned 
from  the  Arctic  coast  of  North  America,  Mackenzie  Bay,  brings 
news  of  blond  Eskimos  living  on  Victoria  Island  and  the  neigh- 
bouring mainland.  These  Eskimos  have  absolutely  no  Mon- 
golian features.  What  light  may  this  discovery  throw  upon  the 
fate  of  the  lost  Norsemen  of  Greenland? 

Note  7,  page  297. — The  Tamil  Mission.  The  Leipzig  Society, 
the  Society  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel,  and  the  Wes- 
leyans  are  at  work  in  the  Tanjore  and  Trichinopoli  districts, 
which  include  Tranquebar.  The  old  Danish  mission  suffered 
from  the  caste  question,  which  was  largely  held  in  abeyance  dur- 
ing the  lifetime  of  Schwartz  by  his  consecrated  Christian  char- 
acter, but  later  proved  a  rock  of  offence. 


APPENDIX  II 

NOTES  ON  ILLUSTRATIONS 

1.  Frontispiece. — Rembrandt's  St.  Paul  in  Prison.  The  artist 
represents  St.  Paul  writing  epistles  to  the  churches. 

2.  Ancient  Celtic  Cross,  lona. — St.  Martin's  Cross.  There 
were  formerly  three  hundred  and  sixty  of  these  crosses  on  Tona. 
Only  two  remain  entire,  Maclean's  Cross  and  the  subject  of  the 
present  illustration.  Opposite  west  door  of  cathedral.  Note  the 
scrolls  and  runic  knots.  The  cross  is  very  old  but  later  than 
Columba's  time. 

3.  (a)  St.  Martin's  Church,  Canterbury. — The  present  building 
contains  in  its  walls  Roman  bricks  from  Queen  Bertha's  Church 
— the  church  in  which  Augustine  baptized  King  j^thelberht — 
and  occupies  the  site  of  the  earlier  edifice. 

(b)  Canterbury  Cathedral. — Built  1070-1495  on  site  of  Roman 


APPENDIX  303 

church  given  by  Kentish  king  to  Augustine  and  restored  by  him. 
See  page  94. 

4.  Ruins  on  Holy  Isle. — Ruins  of  Priory  Church  (Norman)  of 
Lindisfarne,  on  site  of  Aidan's  church,  and  dating  from  eleventh 
century. 

5.  Melrose  Abbey. — This  beautiful  Gothic  ruin,  perhaps  the 
most  beautiful  in  Scotland,  dates  from  the  fifteenth  century.  A 
mile  distant  at  Old  Melrose,  or  Mailros,  there  was  a  Columbite 
monastery  in  St.  Cuthbert's  time,  which  was  destroyed  by  Ken- 
neth M'Alpine  in  839.  In  the  twelfth  century  David  the  First 
founded  a  Cistercian  abbey  on  the  site  of  the  present  ruins. 
The  earlier  buildings  were  destroyed  by  Edward  the  Second 
and  again  in  1385  by  Richard  the  Second. 

6.  The  "Hill-Fortress"  of  Durham. — A  massive  Norman  edi- 
fice on  a  steep  cliff  above  the  river  Wear,  by  which  the  hill  is 
almost  entirely  encircled.  In  days  of  Border  warfare,  "  half 
house  of  God,  half  castle  'gainst  the  Scot,"  Durham  cathedral 
was  in  reality  a  "hill-fortress."  Bede  and  Cuthbert  lie  buried 
here. 

7.  The  Book  of  Martyrdom. — A  manuscript  in  the  Landes- 
bibliothek,  Fulda,  supposed  to  be  the  book  which  Boniface  was 
reading  when  surprised  by  the  pagans  of  Gorcum.  Note  mark 
of  sword-thrust  in  ornamental  cross  on  first  page.  The  book 
contains  several  treatises,  among  which  are  "  Ambrose  on  the 
Holy  Spirit "  and  "  Ambrose  on  the  good  of  death." 

8.  St.  Eligius. — Statue  by  Nani  d'Antonio  Banco,  exterior  of 
Church  of  Or  San  Michele,  Florence.  The  sculptor  was  a  pupil 
of  Donatello. 

9.  St.  Ansgarius. — In  square,  opposite  west  portal  of  cathedral 
(Ansgarii-Kirche),  Bremen.  Right  background  shows  a  part  of 
the  Gewerbehaus,  or  guild-hall  of  the  cloth-merchants  (Renais- 
sance).    Sculptor,  Steinhauser  (1813-78). 

ID.  St.  Francis  of  Assisi. — In  Piazza  of  cathedral,  Assisi. 

II.  Allegory  of  Poverty,  Giotto,  in  Lower  Church,  Assisi. — 
Francis  espouses  Lady  Poverty.  Hope  and  Charity  at  left  of  the 
saint.  The  roses  and  lilies  behind  Lady  Poverty  are  symbols  of 
love  and  purity,  and  the  flames  about  her  head  of  the  glow  of  love 
in  her  heart.  Above  these  figures  are  two  angels,  one  bearing  to 
heaven  the  offering  of  a  purse  and  garment,  the  other,  of  a 
church  with  garden  of  flowers  symbolic  of  the  new  life  brought  to 
the  Church  in  Italy  by  the  humble  Francis. 

13.  Bergen  Harbour. — Mr.  Egede  sailed  from  Bergen  for 
Greenland  on  May  2,  1721.  The  city  of  Bergen  was  founded  by 
Olaf  the  Peaceful  in  the  eleventh  century,  and  from  the  first  en- 
joyed a  large  export  trade.  Backed  by  lofty  hills,  it  is  rendered 
still  more  picturesque  by  its  gabled  and  many-coloured  houses. 

14.  Jerusalem  Church. — A  large  church  in  form  of  a  Greek 
cross,  built  by  Ziegenbalg  at  cost  of  a  little  more  than  $4,000. 
Corner-stone  laid  February  9,  1717.  Dedicated  October  11,  1718, 
Ziegenbalg  buried  at  north  side  of  altar, 


304  APPENDIX 

i6.  Schwarf::  Monument. — In  the  Fort  Church,  Tanjore. 
Sculptor,  Flaxman  (1755-1826).  The  faithful  Gericke,  to  whom 
Schwartz  entrusted  the  education  of  Serfoji,  stands  at  the  head 
of  the  bed  with  an  open  Bible  in  his  hands.  Serfoji  clasps  the 
hand  of  his  dying  friend,  z^t  the  foot,  are  two  of  the  rajah's 
attendants  and  a  group  of  three  children  from  the  orphanage. 

APPENDIX  III 

SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    CONFESSION    OF    ST.    PATRICK    PROVINS    HIS 
APOSTOLIC  AND  MISSIONARY  SPIRIT  ^ 

I. — I,  Patrick,  a  sinner,  the  rudest  and  the  least  of  all  the  faith- 
ful,— was  led  away  into  captivity  to  Hibernia,  with  a  great  many 
men,  according  to  our  deservings;  for  we  had  gone  away  from 
God  and  had  not  kept  His  commandments,  and  were  not  obedient 
to  our  pastors,  who  admonished  us  of  our  salvation.  There  the 
Lord  opened  to  me  a  sense  of  my  unbelief,  that  I  might  remember 
my  sins,  and  that  I  might  be  converted  with  all  my  heart  unto 
the  Lord  my  God,  who  had  looked  upon  my  humility,  and  had 
compassion  on  my  j^outh  and  ignorance ;  and  who  kept  me  until 
I  was  wise,  or  could  distinguish  between  good  and  evil,  and  who 
kept  and  comforted  me  as  a  father  would  a  son. 

X. — And  again,  after  some  time,  I  was  with  my  relatives  in 
Britanniis,  who  received  me  as  a  son,  and  confidently  entreated 
me,  that  after  so  many  years  of  tribulation  through  which  I  had 
passed,  that  I  never  again  would  go  away  from  them.  Now  it 
was  here,  in  the  vision  of  the  night,  that  I  saw  a  man  coming,  as 
if  out  of  Ireland,  with  a  very  great  number  of  letters,  and  gave 
one  of  them  to  me.  I  read  the  beginning  of  the  letter,  which  con- 
tained these  words :  The  Voice  of  the  Irish.  When  I  had  read 
the  principal  of  the  letter,  I  thought  that  at  that  very  moment  I 
heard  the  voice  of  those  who  lived  near  the  woods  of  Flocut, 
which  is  near  the  Western  Sea.  And  thus  they  cried  out,  as 
with  one  voice:  "  We  entreat  you,  holy  youth,  that  you  come  here 
and  walk  among  us  as  before."  Then  I  felt  extremely  touched 
in  my  heart  and  I  could  read  no  more.  And  then  I  awoke. 
Thanks  be  unto  God,  because  the  Lord,  after  so  many  years,  was 
ready  to  answer  them  according  to  their  cry. 

XV. — But  I  left  my  country,  my  relatives,  and  the  many  re- 
wards which  had  been  offered  to  me,  and  with  tears  and  weep- 
ing I  displeased  them,  and  some  of  those  who  were  older  than 
myself;  but  I  did  not  act  contrary  to  my  vow.  And  so,  God 
directing,  I  consented  to  no  one  nor  yielded  to  them,  nor  to  what 
was  pleasing  to  myself.  God  had  overcome  me  and  restored  all 
other  matters ;  so  that  I  went  to  Ireland  to  heathens,  to  preach 
the  gospel  to  them,  to  bring  them  from  unbelief  and  incredible 
reproach. 

> "  The  Irish  Primitive  Church,"  De  Vinnfe, 


APPENDIX  305 

XVI.— And  so  if  I  should  be  deemed  worthy,  I  am  ready, 
willingly  and  unchangeably  for  His  name's  sake  to  spend  my 
life  unto  death,  if  the  Lord  should  thus  indulge  me.  For  I  am 
exceedingly  a  debtor  unto  God,  who  has  given  to  me  such  an 
amount  of  grace  that  so  many  through  my  instrumentality  have 
been  born  again  unto  God,  and  already  established ;  and  that  also 
the  ministry  is  everywhere  ordained  for  a  people  who  have  so 
recently  come  from  unbelief,  whom  the  Lord  has  taken  from  the 
ends  of  the  earth,  and  of  whom  long  ago  He  promised  through 
the  prophet,  "To  thee  the  Gentiles  shall  come  from  the  ends 
of  the  earth  and  shall  say,  Thus  our  fathers  procured  for  them- 
selves false  idols ;  and  there  was  no  profit  in  them."  (Jer.  i6 :  19.) 
Again,  "I  have  placed  thee  a  hght  for  the  Gentiles  that  thou 
mayest  be  for  a  salvation  to  the  ends  of  the  earth."  (Isa.  49:  6-) 
And  for  thee  I  will  wait:  for  thy  promise  never  fails.  So  in 
the  Gospel,  He  has  promised :  "  They  shall  come  from  the  East 
and  the  West,  and  shall  sit  down  with  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob."  (Matt.  8:ii.)  And  so  we  believe  that  believers  are 
about  to  come  from  all  the  world. 

XXIII.— I  wait  daily  either  to  be  killed,  defrauded,  or  to  be 
driven  back  again  into  bondage,  or  any  other  occurrence  you 
please.  But  I  fear  none  of  these  things,  on  account  of  the  prom- 
ise of  heaven;  because  I  have  thrown  myself  into  the  hands  of 
the  omnipotent  God,  who  reigns  everywhere,  who,  by  the  prophet, 
said,  "  Cast  your  thoughts  upon  God  and  he  himself  will 
nourish  you."     (Psalm  54:23.    Greek  translation.) 

XXV.— I  beseech  all  who  believe  in  God  and  fear  Him,  what- 
ever their  rank  may  be,  to  examine  and  regard  this  writing  which 
Patrick,  a  sinner  and  unlearned,  has  written  in  Hibernia:  and 
let  no  one  ever  say  that  I,  through  my  ignorance,  carried  for- 
ward some  little  matter ;  or  whether  I  have  shown,  that  what  has 
been  done,  was  done  according  to  the  pleasure  of  God.  But  do 
you  decide,  that  the  gift  of  God  is  to  be  most  assuredly  credited 
for  what  has  been  done.    And  this  is  my  Confession  before  I  die. 


APPENDIX  IV 

PART    OF    A    LETTER    SENT    BY    THE    TRANQUEBAR    MISSIONARIES    TO 
GEORGE  I.,  KING  OF  ENGLAND  ^ 

We,  the  missionaries,  on  our  part,  are  endeavouring,  according 
to  the  measure  of  the  grace  God  Almighty  has  imparted  to  us, 
plentifully  to  spread  abroad  the  seed  of  the  word  of  God  among 
the  Heathens  in  their  own  language,  there  being  no  other  means 
for  touching  the  hearts  of  Heathens,  in  order  to  their  con- 
version. We  also  maintain  Indians  to  assist  us  as  catechists, 
for  which  function  we  first  prepare  them,  by  instructing  them 

•From  "History  of  the  Propagation  of  Christianity  among  the  Heathen 
since  the  Reformation,"  William  Browa. 


306  APPENDIX 

in   the  saving   faith   of   Jesus   Christ,   and   then   send   them   to 
propagate  it  among  the  Heathens.    To  such  places,  whither  the 
instruction  of  the  gospel  by  word  of  mouth  cannot  reach,  we 
send  our  printed  Malabarian  books,  which  are  read  in  these  parts 
by  many  of  all  sorts  and  degrees.    As  we  are  perfectly  sensible, 
that  to  promote  and   perpetuate   such   an   undertaking,   a   solid 
foundation  must  be  laid,  by  translating  the  Holy  Scriptures  and 
publishing  other  instructive  books  in  the  language  of  the  country, 
we  did  a  good  while  ago  finish  and  publish  a  translation  of  the 
New  Testament  and  are  now  labouring  with  great  application, 
in  translating  the  Old  Testament  into  the  Malabarian  and  Portu- 
guese languages.     Besides,  we  compose  every  year  some  books 
for  instructing  the  Heathens,  containing  the  fundamentals  of  the 
Christian  religion  for  better  publication  of  which,  the  printing- 
press    we    have    received    from    our    benefactors    in    England 
is   of   great   use   to   us.    That   our   printing-press   may    always 
be    provided   with    a    sufficient   quantity    of    letters,    we    enter- 
tain  in   the    mission    persons    for    cutting  moulds   and    casting 
letters,  as  also  for  binding  books,  being  furnished  every  year 
with  the  necessary  tools  and  materials   from   England,   by  the 
laudable     Society     for     Promoting    Christian     Knowledge.    To 
supply  the  want  of  paper,  we  have  been  at  great  expense  in  erect- 
ing a  paper-mill  here.    And  so  under  the  invocation  of  the  name 
of  God,  we  plentifully  dispense,  both  by  word  of  mouth  and  writ- 
ing, in  this  Heathen  country,  the  gospel,  which  makes  a  happy 
impression  on  the  minds  of  many  of  the  inhabitants.    Some,  in- 
deed, particularly  their  Brahmins  or  priests,  gainsay  and  scoff; 
others  come  to  a  sense  of  the  abominations  of  idolatry  and  leave 
off  worshipping  their  idols ;  others  are  brought  to  better  prin- 
ciples, and  show,  in  their  discourse  and  writing,  that  they  have 
got  a   greater  light   than   their   forefathers;   others   again   give 
full  assent  to  all  the  truths  of  Christianity,  but,  out  of  worldly 
considerations,  waive  baptism  and  the  name  of  Christians.     But 
some  break  through  all  difficulties,  and,  subduing  their  reason  to 
the  obedience  of  faith,  resolutely  profess  Christianity:  these  are 
for  some  time  instructed  by  us  and  our  catechists,  and  after- 
wards,  when   they  give   true   signs   of    repentance   and   conver- 
sion, are  received  into  the  bosom  of  the  Christian  Church  by 
holy  baptism.     These  who  are  become  members  of  our  congre- 
gation, we  are  instructing  with  all  diligence,  that  Jesus  Christ 
may  be  formed  within  them.     Our  private  exercises  with  them 
are  daily  catechizings  by  sending  our  catechists  to  their  habita- 
tions, to  inquire  into  their  way  of  life,  to  examine  them  upon  the 
catechism,  to  pray  with  them,  and  to  make  a  report  to  us,  the 
missionaries,  of  what  passes  among  them.    To  exercise  them  in 
praying,  we  have  set  hours  thrice  a  week,  in  which  prayers  are 
read  to  them  in  private.     We  give  free  occasion  to  every  one  of 
them,  to  communicate  to  us  their  concerns.    Our  public  exercises 
consist  in  preaching  to  them,  every  Sunday  in  the  morning,  a 
sermon  in  the  Malabarian  language,  and  another  in  the  Portu- 
guese,  and  in  the  afternoon  we  catechize  in  both   languages, 


APPENDIX  807 

Besides,  we  preach  a  sermon  in  the  High  Dutch  for  the  Euro- 
peans; every  Wednesday,  we  catechize  at  church  in  Portuguese; 
and  every  Friday  in  Malabarian.  As  to  the  children  of  either 
sex  that  belong  to  our  congregation,  we  instruct  them  all  in  our 
schools  in  the  principles  of  Christianity,  reading,  writing,  and 
other  useful  knowledge ;  they  are  maintained  in  everything  at  our 
charge.  We  have  erected  a  seminary  for  such  as  we  design  for 
the  service  of  the  gospel,  to  be  furnished  thence  with  proper 
catechists,  preceptors,  and  clerks.  Such  boys  as  want  necessary 
capacity,  we  put  to  learn  handicrafts.  We  have  also  established 
schools,  one  in  this  town,  and  another  in  a  populous  village  not 
far  off,  where  they  are  instructed  by  Christian  tutors,  and  have 
full  allowance,  except  victuals  and  clothes,  which  their  parents 
find  them.  The  Lord  having  so  blessed  our  labours,  that  the 
new  congregation  increases  every  year,  the  first  church  which  we 
built  became  too  narrow,  upon  which  we  found  it  necessary  to 
build  one  more  spacious,  and  it  pleased  God  to  furnish  us  with 
means  to  finish  it  in  two  years'  time,  and  we  are  now  constantly 
preaching  in  it  in  three  languages.  We  have  likewise,  at  the 
desire  of  the  English  who  live  on  this  coast,  erected  two  schools, 
one  at  Fort  St.  George,  and  another  at  Fort  St.  David.  The 
present  governor  of  Fort  St.  George  is  a  special  friend  to  the 
mission,  and  has  lately  remitted  to  it  a  considerable  present. 
The  rest  of  our  friends  here  have  cheerfully  supplied  our  wants 
this  year.  The  Lord,  whose  work  it  is,  guide  us  for  the  future  by 
his  Divine  Providence,  and  stir  up  in  Europe  many  promoters 
among  persons  of  all  ranks,  that,  in  these  last  times,  the  salvation 
of  the  Heathens  may  be  sought  with  earnestness,  and  their  con- 
version promoted  by  the  whole  Christian  Church.  That  our  most 
merciful  God  may  crown  your  Majesty  with  all  prosperity,  is  the 
prayer  of  your  Majesty's,  etc., 

Bartholomew  Ziegenbalg. 
John  Ernst  Grundler. 
Tranquebar, 
November  24th,  1718. 

APPENDIX  V 
chronology 

A.D.  A.D. 

50-53  Paul's  European  mis-  432  Patricius  begins  his  la- 
sionary   tour.  hours   in   Ireland. 

61      Paul    sent    to     Rome    a  451  Attila  defeated  at  Chalons, 

prisoner.  563  Columba  goes  to  lona. 

325    Council  of  Nicsea.  573  Kentigern   at  Glasgow. 

348    Wulfila  leads  the  Gothic  597  Augustine  lands  at  Thanet, 

Christians  into  Mcesia.  Death  of   Columba, 

381     Death   of   Wulfila.  610  Columbanus  goes  to  Lake 

397    Whithorn  founded.  Constance. 


308 


APPENDIX 


A.D. 

615    Death  of  Columbanus  at 

Bobbio. 
617    Battle  of  the  river  Idle. 
Earpwald  succeeds  Raed- 

wald. 

625  PauHnus    sent    to    Nor- 

thumbria. 

626  Penda  becomes   king   of 

Mercia. 

627  Conversion    of    Eadvi^ine. 

632  Death  of  Mohammed. 

633  Eadwine   slain  at  Heath- 

field. 

634  "  Hateful   year    of    Nor- 

thumbria." 

642  Oswald   slain   at    Maser- 

felth. 

643  Martyrdom  of  Trudpert. 
651    Death   of   Aidan. 

655  Oswiu  overthrows  Penda 

at  Winwaed. 

656  Livin  martyred  in  Brabant. 
659    Death  of  Eligius. 

664  Synod  of  Whitby. 
Death    of    Cedd. 

665  Jaruman  in  Essex. 

669    Ceadda   made   Bishop   of 

the  Mercians. 
672    Death   of    Ceadda. 
678    Wilfrid  in  Frisia. 
681    Wilfrid  preaches  to  South 

Saxons. 
685    Cuthbert      consecrated 

Bishop  of  Lindisfarne. 
687    Death    of    Cuthbert. 
690    Martyrdom  of  the  Hew- 

alds. 
692    Willibrord  goes  to  Frisia. 
732    Saracens       defeated       at 

Poitiers. 
739    Death  of  Willibrord. 
755    Martyrdom   of    Boniface. 
814    Louis     the     Pious     suc- 
ceeds  Charlemagne. 
825    Baptism  of  Harald  Klag. 
Ansgar  goes  to  Denmark. 
84s     Hamburg       burned       by 

Danes. 
Gauzbert    driven    out    of 

Sweden. 


A.D. 

863  or  4    Cyril     and     Metho- 
dius go  to  Moravia. 
865    Death   of    Ansgar. 
869    Death   of   Cyril. 
885    Death   of    Methodius. 

928    Martyrdom    of    Wences- 
laus. 

992    Conversion  of  Vladimir. 

997    Martyrdom   of    Adalbert. 

1066    Martyrdom      of      Gott- 
schalk. 

1096-9    First    Crusade. 

1 168    Last    Wendish    idol    de- 
stroyed. 

1209    Francis  of  Assisi  begins 
preaching. 

1219  Francis  visits  the  Sul- 
tan. 

1226    Death   of  Francis. 

1228-9    Last  Crusade. 

1235     Inquisition  introduced. 

Birth  of  Raymund  Lull. 

1266  Conversion  of  Raymund 
Lull. 

1275    Ars  Majorca  completed. 

1291-2     Lull  visits  Tunis. 

1303    Franciscans  at   Pekin. 

1307-09  Lull's  second  visit  to 
Morocco. 

1315    Lull  stoned  at  Bugia. 

1374  Wyclif  becomes  vicar  of 
Lutterworth. 

1415  John  Hus  burned  at  Con- 
stance. 

1492    Moors  driven  from  Gra- 
nada. 
America  discovered. 

1510    Portuguese  at   Goa. 

1514  Las  Casas  undertakes 
championship  of  In- 
dians of  West  Indies. 

1517  Posting  of  Wittenberg 
Theses. 

1537  Las  Casas  sends  mis- 
sionaries into  the 
Land    of   War. 

1542    Xavier  arrives  at   Goa. 

1546    Death  of  Luther. 

1549    Xavier  to  Japan. 

1552    Death  of  Xavier. 


APPENDIX 


309 


A.D.  A.D. 

1560    Knox's     Confession    of      1740 
Faith       adopted       by 
Scotch   Parliament.  1743 

1567    Death   of   Las   Casas. 

1600    English  East  India  Com- 
pany. 

1602    Dutch  East  India  Com-       1747 
pany. 

1646    Eliot  begins  his  mission- 
ary labours.  1750 
Jogues  put  to   death  by 

Indians.  1758 

1649    Corporation       for      the       1767 
Propagation     of     the 
Gospel    in    New   Eng-      17/0 
land.  1778 

Brebeuf  burned  by  Iro- 
quois. 1791 

1690    Death  of  Eliot.  1792 

1695    Institute         at         Halle 

founded.  1793 

1705    Ziegenbalg     and      Plut- 
schau  sail  for  India. 

1709    Society    for    Promoting      1795 
Christian     Knowledge. 

1714    Ziegenbalg     visits     Eu-       1797 
rope. 

1719    Death  of  Ziegenbalg. 

1721  Egede  sails   for  Green-      1798 

land. 

1722  Herrnhut  built. 

1732    First      Moravian      mis-      1801 
sionaries  go  to  West 
Indies. 


Christian  Henry  Rauch 
at  Shekomeko. 

Schultze  returns  to  Eu- 
rope. 

Brainerd  begins  preach- 
ing to  Indians. 

Death   of    Brainerd. 

George  Schmidt  in  South 
Africa. 

Schwartz  arrives  in 
India. 

Death  of  Egede. 

Schwartz  goes  to  Trich- 
inopoli. 

Death  of  Whitefield. 

Schwartz  begins  mission 
in  Tanjore. 

Death   of  John  Wesley, 

The  Baptist  Missionary 
Society    organized. 

Carey  and  his  com- 
panions sail  for  In- 
dia. 

London  Missionary  So- 
ciety organized. 

First  missionaries  of 
L.M.S.  sent  to  South 
Seas. 

Van  der  Kemp  goes  to 
South   Africa. 

Death  of  Schwartz. 

Carey  becomes  professor 
in  Fort  William  Col- 
lege. 


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the  highest  opportunities  in  life  are  to-day  open  to  the  pastor 
are  conclusively   and  triumphantly  shown. 

NEWELL  DWIGHT  HILLIS,  D.D. 

All  the  Year  Round 

An  Outlook  upon  its  Great  Days,  ismo,  clotl^ 
net  $1.20. 

Dr.  Hillis*  characteristics  as  a  preacher  are  so  well 
known  that  it  is  hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that  this 
volume  of  "Sermons  for  Occasions"  is  distinguished  by 
originality  of  thought,  felicitous  illustrations  and  distinction 
of  style.  Here  the  reader  will  find  material  for  each  great 
festival  day  of  the  church,  and  each  national  holiday,  that 
will  give  deeper  meaning  to  the   "days  we  celebrate." 

RUSSELL  H.  CONWELL,  D.D. 

How  to  Live  the  Chri^  Life 

lamo,  cloth,  net  $1.00. 

Doctor  Conwell  is  a  master  of  the  art  of  presenting  and 
enforcing  truth  with  dramatic,  unusual,  gripping  narratives. 
ITiis  selection  of  some  of  his  best  sermons  well  illustrates 
his  genius,  These  discourses  should  serve  the  double  purpose 
of  stimulating  Christian  readers  to  renewed  endeavor  to 
reach  a  higher  level  of  living  and  to  winning  those  who  have 
not  begun  to  live  the  Christ  life. 

W.  L.   WATKINSON,  D.D. 

Life's  Unexpected  Issues 

and  Other  Papers  on  Character  and  Conduct. 
l2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00. 
"A  book  of  seventeen  addresses  on  character  and  conduct, 
all  of  which  are  fresh  and  fine  in  thought,  style,  and  spirit. 
I'o  those  who  have  heard  or  read  after  Doctor  Watkinson, 
no  word  of  commendation  need  be  spoken  of  these  splendid 
papers,  the  first  of  which  gives  title  to  the  volume.  The 
table  of  contents  is  most  inviting,  and  each  topic  is  taught 
and  interpreted  in  a  simple,  helpful  way." — Religious  Tele- 
scope, 

REV.   WILFRED  S.  HACKETT 

The  Land  of  Your  Sojournings 

I2rrio,  cloth,  net  $1.00. 
"To  pastors  and  laymen  who  find  themselves,  submerged 
inthe  dispiritualizing  atmosphere  of  our  daily  life,  this  true 
spiritual  philosopher  speaks  with  wise,  m.ellow,  teiider  counsel. 
His  style  i§.  luminous,  expository  and  fraught  with  a  weakh 
of  illustrations." — Twentieth  Century  Pastor. 


THE  CHURCH  AND  ITS  WORK 

HENRY  C.  McCOMAS,  Ph.D. 

The  Psychology  of  Religious  Sects 

A  Comparison  of  Religious  Types.    Cloth,  net  $1.25. 

A  study  of  tlie  origin  of  the  various  denominations. 
IWhen  and  how  did  they  begin?  Is  there  real  need  for  one 
hundred  and  eigthy  odd  sects  in  America  or  are  they  a 
positive  hindrance  to  the  Church?  The  scientific  spirit  ia 
jn  evidence  throughout  these  chapters  but  so,  also  is  the 
spirit  of  reverence.     The  book  is  constructive  not  iconoclastic 

CHARLES  STELZLE 

American  Social  and  Religious  Conditions 

Illustrated  with  numerous  charts  and  tables.  12mOi 
cloth,  net  $1.00. 

This  work  may  be  used  both  as  a  text  book  for  study 
classes  and  for  general  reading.  It  contains  the  findings 
of  the  Men  and  Religion  Surveys  in  seventy  principal  cities, 
of  which  the  author  had  charge.  Mr.  Stelzle  also  served  as 
the  dean  of  the  Social  Service  throughout  the  Movement. 
Out  of  a  wide  and  practical  experience  in  City  Work  the 
author  discusses  a  program  for  the  Church,  especially  with 
regard  to  the  "down-town"  situation.  The  book  contains 
many  original  charts  and  diagrann. 

CHARLES  S.  MACFARLAND 

Spiritual  Culture  and  Social  Service 

i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00. 

A  stirring  call  to  service.  Dr.  Macfarland,  as  pastor  ot 
Congregational  churches  in  large  industrial  centres,  has 
had  first  hand  experience  in  some  of  the  most  pressing  prob- 
lems now  confronting  the  church.  As  secretary  of  the  Social 
Service  Commission  of  the  Council  of  Churches  of  Christ 
in  Ameriaa,  he  is  now  engaged  in  solving  the  problem  in  a 
larger  way.  He  has  a  message  to  deliver  and  he  presents  it 
•with  a  force  and  conviction  that  cannot  fail  to  deeply  im- 
press and  influence  the  reader. 

'ARTHUR  V.  BABBS,A.B. 


The  Law  of  the  Tithe 

As  Set  Forth  in  the  Old  Testament.    i2mo,  cloth, 
net  $1.50. 

"A  book  of  very  genuine  scholarship— a  complete  histoiTr 
of  the  universality  of  the  tithe — the  ablest  and  perhaps  the 
most  interesting  explanation  of  this  ancient  custom  that  ba9 
appeared." — uV.   Y.  Christian  Advocate. 


SOCIOLOGY  AND  PRACTICAL  RELIGION 


FREDERIC  J.   HASKIN      ..^^    ^    Author  of 

— ^■^-^— ^— — — ^— —  The  American  Goventment 

The  Immigrant :  An  Asset  and  a  Liability 

i2mo,   cloth,   net   $1.25. 

The  basis  for  this  book  is  a  series  of  articles  in  nearly 
fifty  leading  dailies  in  the  United  States  which  attracted  wide- 
spread interest  and  approval.  The  author,  a  well-known  news- 
paper correspondent  is  noted  for  his  accuracy  and  thorough- 
ness. He  has  treated  each  phase  of  the  question  in  a  pains- 
tking,  scientific  manner.  The  text  bristles  with  statistics, 
illustrations,  generalizations  and  deductions  all  welded  to- 
gether into  a  crisp,  straightforward  narration  of  absorbing 
interest.  It  might  very  properly  be  called  an  encyclopedic 
handbook  on  the  subject  of  Immigation. 

CHARLES   STELZLE 

The  Gospel  of  Labor 

l2mo,  cloth,  net  50c. 

This  volume  of  talks  to  working  men  is  characteristic  of 
the  author  of  "Letters  From  a  Workingman."  Dr.  Stelzle 
is  rightly  called  "The  Apostle  of  the  American  Laborer.' 
Once  a  workingman  himself  he  knows  just  how  to  reach  the 
men  of  this  class.  The  sympathy  and  understanding  of  like 
experiences  inform  his  addresses  and  carry  the  message  home 
to  the  heart. 

PROFESSOR  JAMES  R.   HOJVERTON 

The  Church  and  Social  Reform 

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This  compact  little  volume  on  Christianity  and  social  con- 
ditions presents  the  subject  in  three  sections:  First,  "The 
Church  and  Revolutions  of  the  Past";  Second,  "The  Causet 
of  the  Present  Social  Crisis";  Third,  "The  Church  and 
Social  Reforms  of  To-day."  The  student  of  social  conditions 
will  find  here  a  very  clear  and  satisfactory  historical  state- 
ment, a  graphic  analysis  of  the  causes  of  the  present  discon- 
tent and  a  rationale  of  alleviation  that  will  arouse  discussion 
and  open  the  eyes  of  Christian  citizens  to  their  duty  in  the 
present  crisis. 


YOUNG  MEN 

-■ 


JOHN  DOUGLAS  ADAM,  P.P. 

Letters  of  Father  and  Son  During  a 

College  Course         i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.00. 

There  is  plenty  of  practical  everyday  common  sense  in 
these  letters  in  addition  to  the  spiritual  philosophy  which 
characterizes  them.  In  twenty-four  chapters  life's  great 
problems  are  discussed  with  freedom  and  insight.  Study, 
recreation,  friends,  use  of  time,  money,  health,  speech, 
thought,  influence,  religion,  trouble,  optimism  and  character 
are  some  of  the  subjects  treated. 


FICTION,  JUVENILE 


HENRY   OTIS  DWIGHT 

A  Muslim  Sir  Galahad 

A  Present  Day  Story  of  Islam  In  Turkey.  i2mo, 
cloth,  net  $i.oo. 

A  story  of  the  Mohammedan  world  which  holds  the  read- 
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ligion has  the  quality  of  reality.  Dramatic  interest  and 
thrills  of  adventure  are  here  in  full  measure.  It  is  a  worthy 
addition  to  missionary  narration  and  in  view  of  recent  por- 
tentious  events  in  the  near  East  a  timely  and  acceptable  work. 

CHARLES   H.   LERRIGO 

Doc  Williams 

A  Tale  of  the  Middle  West.    i2mo,  cloth,  net  $1.25. 

The  story  of  a  "doctor  of  the  old  school"  with  every  ele- 
ment which  makes  a  novel  worth  the  reading,  plot,  character 
delineation,  setting,  style — all  are  here.  Intensely  human, 
natural,  humorous,  pathetic,  joyous.  The  originality  of  the 
plot  piques  the  reader's  curiosity_  and  the  most  jaded  de- 
vourer  of  novels  will  find  himself  irresistibly  held  in  delight- 
ful suspense.  _  The  sentiment  and  suggestion  and  mellow 
philosophy  which  run  all  through  the  story  are  altogether 
delightful. 

7.  T.  THURSTON 

The  Torch  Bearer 

A  Camp  Fire  Girls'  Story.    Illustrated,  net  $1.00. 

The  author  of  "The  Bishop's  Shadow"  and  "The  Scout 
Master  of  Troop  s,"  has  scored  another  conspicuous  success 
in  this  new  story  of  girl  life.  She  shows  conclusively  that  she 
knows  how  to  reach  the  heart  of  a  girl  as  well  as  that  of  a 
boy.  The  beautiful  ritual  and  practices  of  "The  Camp  Fire 
Girls"  are  woven  into  a  story  of  surpassing  interest  and 
charm. 


SOCIOLOGY  AND  PRACTICAL   RELIGION 

PROF.  GIOVANNI  LUZZI,  P.P. 

The  Struggle  for  Christian  Truth  in  Italy 

8vo,  cloth,  net  $1.50. 

The  author  traces  the  history  of  Christianity  in  Italy  from 
its  dawn  in  Rome,  through  the  Protestant  development,  giv- 
ing a  concise  history  of  the  Bible  in  Italy,  the  founding  of 
the  Waldensian  Mission  among  the  Alps,  the  religious  re- 
vival of  1800,  the  exile  period;  up  to  the  present  move- 
ment, termed  "Modernism,  an  attempt  to  bring  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  back  to  the  simplicity  of  Christ. 


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Stubbs 

How  Europe  was  won  for  Christi- 


]^n  2  3  1914 


i 


III 


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